Doors
by Raeni12345
Summary: "Doors in Wonderland are different. Some doors, if you open them, lead to a blank wall, or a hallway with no other doors. And some of the doors lead to a different part of the city. There are even a few doors that never open to the same place twice."
1. Prologue

**AN: I know, I know. Another new story when I should be finishing my other two first. Don't worry, I am still working on them. But this story has been rattling around in my head for some time now, so I finally started writing it. This is a stand-alone (ie: not a part of my regular Hatter-verse), but it does draw from an idea I floated in Hare and Hatter.**

**Enjoy. And please let me know what you think (please review!).  
**

...

Alice tried to stifle a yawn as she stared at a large gray canvas, blank save for a long squiggly blue line that appeared to be constructed of spray-painted cornflakes, and a few reddish dots on either side. "The River" said a placard below it, and Alice struggled not to roll her eyes.

It wasn't that she didn't appreciate art. She loved art – Monet, DaVinci, Van Gogh. She had even taken a course at university. But this "local artists" exhibit had been one of the least inspiring events that Hatter had dragged her to yet.

At least he seemed to be enjoying himself. Everything in her world was still new and exciting to him, and in a lot of ways, he had opened her eyes to just how good her world really was. Shops on every corner, selling anything one could think of to buy. Hundreds of kinds of tea... real tea. Pizza, and delivered to the door no less. Books on every subject, widely available to anyone who wanted to read.

And when it came to the arts, Hatter was like a starved man who suddenly found himself at a feast. Music. Theater. Artwork. All artistic expressions that were banned under the rule of the Queen of Hearts, here in seemingly unending supply. Since he had come to her world, Alice had found herself at more local theater, concerts and art shows then she had ever gone to in her life.

Hatter rematerialized at her side, and examined the canvas before them. Alice was pleased to see that he seemed similarly unimpressed with this particular piece. He had somehow seen "inspiration" in most of the pieces in the room, and seemed to be fitting in a little too well with the modern-art crowd that was at the exhibit.

After a moment of pondering it, Hatter grinned and grabbed Alice's hand, pulling her along through a doorway. Alice barely stifled a groan when she realized there was an entire second room of unexplored artwork. This was going to take all day.

"You so owe me dinner," she groused at him. But there was no response. She turned to find him staring, wide eyed, at one of the exhibits.

It was an old-fashioned door, standing in the middle of the room. On one side, it was covered in distressed and aged blue paint. On the other, it was painted bright red, although the frame was the same color of blue. The placard below read:

_**To Where?**_

_By Sparrow_

"Hatter?"

But he had released her hand and was now circling the door, an astonished look on his face. She watched him for a long moment, confusion written clearly on her face.

Finally, he turned to her, and his eyes were bright with excitement. "It's a Wonderland door!" he exclaimed. He circled around it again. "I wonder where it goes?"

Now Alice was staring at him as though he was crazy. "Hatter, you can see both sides of the door. It doesn't go anywhere." Then she grabbed Hatter's hand and pulled it back. He was reaching for the doorknob. "Hatter! It doesn't go anywhere."

He turned and faced her again. "Wonderland doors are different, Alice." He looked at the chipped blue side. "Doors in Wonderland are magic."

Alice looked at him quizzically. "I thought you said that the magic was gone from Wonderland."

Hatter nodded slightly. "Most of it is. But some of the doors didn't realize that." At Alice's confused look, he continued. "Did you notice how many doors there were in the city?"

Alice paused. She hadn't really thought about it. Whenever she thought about Wonderland, she pictured the dizzying heights and drops. But then she remembered the path to the Great Library. There were at least a dozen doors on that wall, all right beside each other, all looking exactly the same, but they were all so close together that the bus-elevator couldn't possibly have fit behind just one.

"There were a lot," Alice admitted. "But some of them had to be decoys."

Hatter nodded. "Some of them. Some doors, if you open them, lead to a blank wall, or a hallway with no other doors. And some of the doors lead to a different part of the city. There are even a few doors that never open to the same place twice."

Alice noticed that Hatter's story was drawing a small crowd of patrons, and she thought for a moment to suggest they continue the conversation later, but she was curious. She looked at the door in front of her. "How?" she asked.

Hatter shrugged. "It's Wonderland. Doors are like that there." He grinned slightly, a bit nervously, now noticing the crowd too. He had to remind himself, ever since he had arrived, that Wonderland was just a kid's story here. And this crowd was interested in hearing that story.

He took off his hat and did a few basic tricks with it as he continued. "It makes it easy to stay hidden." He flipped his hat back onto his head. "If you don't want anyone to find you, you just change your door." He looked, a little longingly, at the doorknob, but didn't reach for it again. "I wonder if this door remembers where it's from?"

...


	2. Chapter 1: The Looking Glass

**AN: So this is where the story starts... enjoy!**

...

The old, rundown warehouse was much as he remembered it, the day he came through the Looking Glass. Slightly damp, colder then the outside air, dimly lit. The rusty metal stairs clanged dully under their feet as they made their way up to the second floor.

Hatter held tightly to Alice's hand, trying hard not to let his tremble, as they made their way toward the looking glass. They rounded the corner, and the large, antique-looking gilded mirror came into view. Hatter swallowed hard as they approached the glass.

Alice's reflection looked into his eyes, and smiled gently, though he could see a trace of sadness in her blue pools. He didn't have to look at his own reflection to know that his eyes were betraying his own emotions: a swirling mixture of anxiety, sadness, acceptance and anticipation.

It wouldn't be long now.

…

_"We're destroying the Looking Glass."_

_Alice and Hatter stared at the King of Hearts as though he had grown another head. They had known something was up when they had heard crashing in the kitchen early that Sunday morning, and instead of finding intruders, had found Charlie making breakfast and Jack sitting in their living room._

_"Destroying it?" Hatter finally found his voice, after the shocked silence had dragged on for well over a minute. "Destroying it?" he said again, disbelief in his voice. His brow wrinkled. "Is that even possible?"_

_"Why?" was all that Alice managed._

_Jack shifted uncomfortably under the gaze of the two Heroes of Wonderland. "You know why," he stated. "The breaches." He had called on them before, to help him find fugitive Wonderlanders in the oyster world._

_It had been eight months since the coup that had ended the reign of the Queen of Hearts. Eight months since Alice had brought down the house of cards. Eight months since the oysters had been sent back through the looking glass, to their world._

_And it had been eight months of political and social unrest in Wonderland._

_The majority of the population was addicted to oyster tea. Caterpillar had devised a cure for the addiction, but it could only be administered a few addicts at a time. Further, many Wonderlanders did not trust the new king, and rumor circulated that the "treatment" was actually brainwashing to make one loyal to the new monarch._

_But it went so far beyond mere addiction. Tea was the opiate, the quick-fix that made people oblivious to their world decaying around them. There was so much rebuilding to do, so many things that needed to be done. And as people started waking up from it, they were waking up to a world that lacked magic and largely lacked hope._

_Jack had decided to allow the continued sale of the remaining teas, hoping that weaning people from it slowly would keep things stable until he could establish his new monarchy. But as the tea inevitably started to run out, more and more attempts were being made to acquire more tea, more oysters. And the breaches of the Looking Glass became more frequent._

_"Just last week, we rescued eight oysters that had been smuggled in from the London portal," Jack explained. "The looking glass had been hidden for weeks – only a few people knew where it was. And the ring was locked away in the palace. But somehow they still managed to get their hands on both. This isn't going to stop. This isn't going to go away. There are traitors at every level." Jack sighed heavily and looked over at Hatter and Alice. "This is the only way."_

_Another long silence fell. Jack shifted uncomfortably, waiting for someone to speak. Even Charlie was silent, looking rather morose as he stared at his hands. The Looking Glass was the one undestroyed relic from the Kingdom of the Knights. And soon enough, it too would be gone._

_"When?" It was Hatter who finally spoke._

_"The seventeenth, at around 2, your time," Jack replied. "I have people looking for any Wonderlanders living here, offering them one last chance to come back to Wonderland before the Looking Glass is gone." Jack took another deep breath. "I'm here to extend the chance to you as well – both of you. I would be honored to have you back in Wonderland, should you choose to return."_

…

The Looking Glass shimmered.

Alice squeezed Hatter's hand tightly. His eyes never strayed from the glass before them.

Their reflections started to waver, blur slightly. The glass began to shake. Then came the sound, somewhat akin to a gunshot. And the first crack split the Looking Glass from top to bottom.

Hatter swallowed hard, a lump rising in his throat.

Another crack appeared, then another. And just as suddenly, the frame wrenched free of the wall, and began to topple forward. Hatter and Alice barely had time to jump back as it crashed to the floor, and fragmented into a million pieces.

It was gone.

Hatter sank to the floor, and stared at ruin of glass and frame on the concrete. He couldn't contain his shaking now. The only permanent doorway between here and the world that had been his home was gone. And as much as he loved Alice, as much as he loved living in her world, as much as he had stopped calling Wonderland home, a small piece of his heart shattered with the Looking Glass.

...

**AN: So, what did you think? Please review. You have no idea how much reviews make my day. Constructive criticism is always welcome as well. Cheers!**


	3. Chapter 2: Wonderland

...

The harsh blare of the alarm clock tore them from their sleep entirely too early for either of their liking. Alice mumbled something incoherent and reached over Hatter to swat the snooze button. She bestowed a kiss on the shell of his ear as she retreated back to her pillow.

Hatter smiled groggily and relished the last few minutes of Alice's warmth against his side.

The third time the alarm screamed at him, Hatter finally, reluctantly, slide his legs out of the warm cocoon of blankets, groaning a little as the change of temperature against his bare skin, and padded toward the bathroom. Alice opened one eye, long enough to appreciate the sight of Hatter's toned body, clad only in silk paisley boxers, before snuggling into his warm, freshly-vacated spot for a few more minutes of shut-eye.

Hatter rubbed the sleep from his eyes as he walked through the bathroom door. He had never been much of a morning person, but mornings had grown infinitely more tolerable once he had started waking up with Alice. Still, he generally staggered through his morning routine, half-awake until he had his first cup of tea.

And today, staggered quite literally. His foot connected with something hard, and before he could regain himself, he found himself pitching forward. And nearly off the ledge.

Ledge? What the...

Suddenly wide awake, he threw himself back against the wall, trembling, staring around in shock and horror.

There was no denying where he was. As far as he could see, up and down, there were dilapidated buildings and dizzying drops and bridges connecting them all. It was day, but there was no direct sunlight, telling him that he was somewhere in the middle of the city. And a cold wind blew across his bare torso and legs. It would have made him shiver if he wasn't already shaking so badly.

Wonderland.

How the hell had he ended up in Wonderland? The last thing he remembered was waking up with Alice, and heading to the bathroom. The bathroom in his flat. His flat in her world.

A small creaking sound, followed by an ominous click, caused him to spin about, so quickly that he almost lost his balance again. The door was closed. The door he had just come through. The bathroom door. Only it wasn't a bathroom door anymore. Faded, chipped blue paint. Weathered wood. It looked like every other door on the level.

Only this one was separating him from Alice. Alice!

He grasped the doorknob, and yanked the door, until it shuddered on its hinges. An unyielding wall of rust-colored bricks met him.

"NO!" His voice echoed off of surrounding buildings, and panic tightened in his chest. He balled his right fist and struck hard against the barrier, but other then a small crack that appeared in the grouting, the wall didn't move.

"ALICE!" He struck the wall again, but with no result.

The door led here, but didn't lead back. And he needed to find the door that did.

There were at least twenty of them, all side by side along the ledge he was on. The first two he pulled open were like the first – leading only to a wall. When he yanked the third door, at first it was unyielding, but after a bit of "convincing" it finally flew open, startling the poor family that was having a meal in their kitchen.

He came to the last of the doors along the ledge, without having found one that lead back to his home, or anywhere else in Alice's world. He was truly fearful now, and struggling to keep his head against the panic that was threatening to overwhelm him. And he was shivering uncontrollably in the cold air.

"Clothes, you need clothes," he told himself, striving to regain his rationality. The tea shop. It had undoubtedly been completely looted, but the tea-heads may not have found the secret room. Some of his belongings might still be unscathed, and he was sure that he had at least a few outfits and a hat still hidden away there.

He paused as he passed the door he had come through. The door that brought him here, but wouldn't let him back.

Panic gave way to unexpected rage and he clenched his right fist.

…

Alice shrieked as the bathroom door splintered and exploded across the room, revealing a very agitated Hatter.

"What the hell..." But that was all that she managed before Hatter threw himself across the room and onto the bed, grabbing at her and pulling her into a tight embrace.

He was shivering, and his skin was ice-cold. And she could feel his heart pounding.

It took nearly a minute before she could get any response from him. Her gaze jumped back and forth between the man in her arms, and the demolished bathroom door. "Hatter. What happened?"

Hatter pulled back, just enough to look into Alice's concerned, and honestly, rather frightened face. "Wonderland. I don't know how it happened. The door..." He followed Alice's gaze, and winced slightly at the destruction littering the floor, before continuing. "... it brought me into Wonderland, but when I tried to go back, there was a wall there..."

Alice was staring at him now, a hint of amusement tugging at the corners of her mouth. "You were dreaming, Hatter. You must have fallen asleep in the bathroom."

He shook his head. "Wasn't a dream," he insisted.

Alice quirked an eyebrow at him, disbelieving. "I can see into the bathroom right now. It isn't Wonderland."

Hatter turned and looked. Sure enough, the gray-tiled walls and porcelain fixtures were all that was visible through the doorway. He had been half expecting to still see the ledge and the city, but it wasn't there.

"It... it was real, Alice." But his voice betrayed his own rising doubt.

Alice shook her head, and moved to get out of bed. Hatter pulled back and got to his feet, walking slowly back toward the bathroom. He hesitated briefly at the door frame, before cautiously stepping through.

It was still the bathroom. He breathed a sigh of relief, and turned on the tap at the sink. And he froze, staring at his hand in shock.

Imbedded in his freshly-bloodied knuckles were flecks of faded blue paint.

…

**AN: Dun dun dun dun! Stay tuned. And please review (constructive criticism also welcome). Reviews make my day! Cheers.**


	4. Chapter 3: Belief

Hatter had started dreaming about Wonderland, with increasing frequency, since the Looking Glass had been destroyed. Alice had simply shrugged it off as a delayed homesick reaction, now that the only sure way back to his world was gone.

And not all the dreams were pleasant. Often, Hatter would wake up disoriented, or in a cold sweat. Sometimes he would even cry out in his sleep and flail around a bit. But the affects of the dreams would always dissipate moments after he awoke.

This time, Alice had to admit, it was far different.

It had been four days since he had demolished the bathroom door. Four days since he claimed that he had walked through a doorway and into Wonderland. But she had seen him emerge from their bathroom, not from the streets of Wonderland. So she had shrugged it off as another of his dreams, though perhaps an especially vivid one.

But it was still affecting him.

Hatter now paused at every doorway. He examined his surroundings anxiously before he would let a door close behind him. He would throw open a closed door and look past it before venturing on. He would even hold Alice back and insist on passing through a doorway first to make sure it was safe. And he hadn't replaced the bathroom door yet.

It was driving her crazy. But more then anything, it was making her worry that Hatter was losing his mind.

And it was distracting her from her class. Twice now, a yellow belt student had been able to get the best of her on the mat. And Alice couldn't quite suppress a growl of frustration.

She was thankful when the class was over. More then anything, she just needed a good, long, solitary workout to calm her down. It was Wednesday evening, and hers was the last class, so she would have the dojo to herself. She made a quick call to Hatter, informing him that she was staying late to get in an extra workout, then pulled out a heavy bag from the storage locker and set it up.

An hour later, and finally exhausted, she took a deep breath, wiped her face with a towel, put away the heavy bag, and walked through the changeroom door...

…

Hatter was beside himself with worry. It was almost eleven, and Alice hadn't come home yet. Her class had ended at 7:30, and although she had chosen to stay for an extra workout, she should have been home no later then 9.

He had already run, twice, to the dojo to try to find any trace of her, but she wasn't there. He had tried her cell, but it had simply kept ringing before going to voicemail. He called Carol in desperation, but Alice wasn't there either... and all he had accomplished was to get Carol worried now as well.

So now, barely holding back his panic, he paced back and forth across the livingroom floor, pleading with whatever force might be listening, that Alice was okay.

…

It should have been the women's changeroom: a brightly lit, white tiled room with wooden benches and a row of sinks and stalls. Instead, Alice walked through the door and started stumbling in the sudden darkness. She tripped over something, and fell to her hands and knees onto... grass?

Feeling disoriented and more then a little apprehensive, she stayed on the ground until her eyes adjusted to the dimness around her. There was something vaguely familiar about this place – a feel, a sense, like she had been here before.

She had been here before!

For a moment, she could almost feel the wet fabric of her blue dress, see the bright green leafy tattoo on her forearm, hear the voice._"Do I need a reason to help a pretty girl in a very wet dress."_

"Oh my god," Alice whispered. Hatter hadn't been dreaming. Either that, or she was.

She was in Wonderland. And not just in Wonderland, she was in Hatter's old office in the tea shop. From where she was kneeling, she ascertained that she must have come in through the door that, the day she first met Hatter, they had left through. The one that had no ledge outside, only a long ladder running down the side of the building, She shuddered at the recollection.

The door was closed, though she hadn't noticed it shut. She pulled herself up off the ground and pulled it open again.

Instead of the main room of the dojo, she was instead met with a dizzying drop, and Wonderland's city bathed in moonlight. She staggered back from the doorway, terror gripping her – a combination of the heights and the idea of being stuck in Wonderland without Hatter.

The door was swinging shut again, and she let it, backing away until she bumped into Hatter's old wingback chair.

And the chair gave a snort and a low cry.

Alice screamed and scrambled back. She could hear someone fumbling about, and suddenly a lamp turned on, bathing the corner of the room with light. A small, terrified face appeared around the side of the chair, and eyed her suspiciously.

"Who are you?" The voice was more of a squeak then anything, but it was vaguely familiar, as was the face.

"Dormie?" Alice took a deep breath, striving to slow her racing heart.

The face disappeared for a moment, before the wingback chair swung around, revealing the small man in the oversized, fur-lined jacket. "Who wants to know?" he demanded, eying her suspiciously.

"I'm..." Alice paused, bracing herself for the reaction, "... Alice."

"Alice!" Dormie's voice was another high-pitched squeak. "The Alice? Alice of Legend?"

Alice resisted the urge to roll her eyes, feeling somehow felt calmer now that she was talking to someone she knew. Or at very least, knew of. They had never actually met, but she knew he was an old friend of Hatter's, and she had seen him on her first day in Wonderland.

"Hatter's Alice?"

She realized she hadn't responded yet, and that Dormie was definitely waiting for a response. "Yes," Alice responded finally. "Hatter's Alice."

"Where's Hatter?" Dormie was now frantically looking around the room.

Alice took a deep breath. "He's not here." She could feel herself starting to tremble again. "I'm not supposed to be here either."

Dormie looked at her, once again suspicious. "Why are you here?"

"I... I don't know. I just ended up here." She was barely on her feet now. "I need to talk to Jack."

"The king?"

"Yes, the king."

Dormie pondered for a moment, then nodded. "Wait here," he said, and started to scamper away, his hands twitching. In a moment, he had disappeared through a side door that Alice hadn't noticed before. Alice stared after the strange man for a long moment, feeling a little uncertain. She hoped he was going to find Jack for her, but he had left so abruptly that she couldn't be sure.

Alice sat in Dormie's vacated seat, and slowly swung around and took her first real look at the rest of the room.

It was far from the tidy though eclectic office that it had been when she had first been here. The grass carpet, which Hatter had been so protective and proud of, was overgrown and full of brown spots. His glass desk was missing, and in its place was a rough wooden table, with one of the legs shorter then the others and supported with a box. The glass wardrobe was still standing, though its doors were broken, and the clothes were missing. The white vinyl couch was sliced open in several places and covered in dirt. The tea collection was long gone.

"_I don't know if you noticed, Alice, but my shop was ransacked..."_

Alice swallowed hard. Even after all this time, even after all she had done to help Wonderland, she still felt a little guilty for everything that Hatter had lost and given up for her. Dormie had obviously tried to set the office right again, but it definitely lacked Hatter's flare.

Dormie still hadn't returned, and she thought briefly about trying to find Jack on her own. But she shook it off, and tried to distract herself.

Her eyes lit on the door to the selling floor. Numerous locks and deadbolts ran down the side of the door – security had obviously been an issue – and the door had a large crack running through the upper panel. She slowly made her way across the room to it. She placed her fingers on the first lock and turned it.

To her surprise, the rest of the locks, one by one, undid themselves and the door swung inwards. The light of the lamp in the office did nothing to illuminate the old selling floor, and once again she had to wait as her eyes adjusted to the dimness.

Nothing had been done to set the selling floor to rights again. The remnants of smashed tables and chairs, broken glass and twisted metal lay scattered all around. All of the windows were broken, and she could see fragments of the city through them.

She turned back towards the office, only to find the door had closed behind her. She grasped the doorknob and pulled, but it didn't budge.

Panic welled up, unbidden, in her throat. She turned the knob and yanked once again, but the door still did not budge.

She banged on it and called for Dormie, hoping that the man had returned, but there was no answer from the other side.

The room she was in seemed menacing and unprotected now. Every creak caused her to jump slightly. Across the room, she was sure she had seen something move.

"Calm down Alice!" she scolded herself, then pounded on the door once again, but to no avail. Finally, with a growl of frustration, she threw her body up against the door.

And to her shock, it flew open and she tumbled through...

Onto a cement floor, and once again, semi-darkness. And the door clicked shut behind her.

Where the hell was she now? It definitely wasn't Hatter's office, and it wasn't the dojo either. There was what appeared to be a window, fairly far above her, and a bit of light was shining through it. Enough that she could see around the small cement room.

The door she had just come through was the only entrance or exit, and it was now made of steel. She hoped desperately that it wouldn't be locked.

Surprisingly, the knob turned easily and she found herself in a hallway. She could hear the sound of traffic, and she breathed a sigh of relief. She continued down the hall, and found a set of rusted metal stairs.

She was in the old warehouse. The one that had housed the looking glass.

She was back.

…

A key in the lock drew Hatter's attention, and he was across the room and yanking open the door in a second. There stood his Alice, looking shaky and disheveled. She was still wearing her gi, but instead of the immaculate white, it was covered in dirt, and had what looked like grass stains on the knees.

He stared at her in mute shock for a moment, before she threw herself into his arms.

"Okay... I believe you," she mumbled into his shoulder.

...

**AN: Hope you like. Please review! And thanks to you wonderful readers who have been reviewing! Much love for making my day!**


	5. Chapter 4: The Intruder

**AN: Thanks very much to those who have been reading and reviewing. Glad you are enjoying the story.**

**Much more action to come. Stay tuned. Cheers!**

**(And my absolute apologies to those who are waiting on my updates for my other stories... they are coming, really! Just struggling with them a bit)**

**...**

"So now what?"

Alice had gone through six doorways between getting home and going to bed. It bothered her that she was keeping count, but after the ordeal she had been through today, she couldn't help herself. None of them had led anywhere other then the spot in the flat that they were supposed to lead, but that did little to soothe her nerves.

She felt Hatter shrug underneath her, but he didn't say anything. She could tell by the crinkling of his brow and the way his jaw was set as he stared at the ceiling that his mind was racing. And she could see that he was more concerned then ever.

"We need to figure out what is going on! We can't just go through life, afraid that the next door we walk through will drop us into Wonderland. We'll go crazy!"

Hatter nodded, his eyes still not leaving the ceiling. Alice studied his face, trying to figure out what he was thinking, but he was unreadable. She would just have to wait until he said something.

Hatter had not responded well when he realized where she had been, the fact that she had ended up in Wonderland without him there to protect her. And the door had deposited her right into his old tea shop. Not exactly a savory area of town, although, he supposed, it could have been worse. He imagined that not many, other then Dormie, went there now. The tea would have disappeared long ago, and later raids would have proved that to any residual tea-heads. But it still alarmed him.

Alice curled tighter to Hatter's side, and kissed his neck. Hatter finally tore his eyes from the spot on the ceiling and looked down at her, before wrapping his arms tightly around her. He swallowed hard and buried his face in her hair. "I'll figure this out," he mumbled. "I'm just glad you're safe."

…

At first, she wasn't sure what had woken her up. One moment, she had been sound asleep, the next, wide awake. Wide awake and feeling that something was off. She lay there, completely still and silent, straining her ears for the slightest sound.

And the sound came. The definite click of a door coming shut. Quickly followed by a creaking in the floor.

There was a loose floorboard right by the entrance. She had always meant to get it fixed, but her plans to get the floor redone had been put indefinitely on the back burner. But now, the loose board told her that someone had entered her house – and it wasn't Alice. Alice had long ago learned to avoid it, after it had betrayed her one night when she had missed curfew.

There was a male voice. Cursing. And the sound of someone fumbling in the dark.

As quietly but as quickly as she could, Carol moved out from under the covers, and looked around desperately for anything to defend herself with. Her eyes lit on the antique brass lamp on her bedside table. With a silent apology to her Great Aunt Margaret, she pulled the plug from the wall and divested the lamp of its shade.

She crept out into the hall, clinging to the lamp like a bat. The light had been turned on in the main room now, and a shadow moved across the entrance of the hall. She flattened herself against the wall, her heart pounding. For a moment, she contemplated going into the kitchen and finding a knife, but she dismissed the thought.

Intruder or not, she didn't want to kill him. Or risk him using the knife against her.

The intruder was muttering under his breath now, and pacing in an agitated fashion. She couldn't see him, just the shadows that he threw on the hallway wall. Drug addict? she thought, silently. There had been an increasing number of drug-related thefts and break-ins in the area, but usually it was the shops below and not the apartments above that were targeted.

The footsteps stopped, just shy of the hallway entrance. Carol raised the lamp. The man cursed, quietly, once again, then took a step forward.

With a yell, Carol lept out of the shadows. The man swung around, just in time for the base of the heavy brass lamp to connect with the side of his face. He crumpled to the floor with a groan, and Carol staggered back, still clinging to her weapon, trying to calm her racing heart. And then she noticed it.

The man, now unconscious on the floor, was wearing a suit. A very expensive suit. Confusion and curiosity momentarily overcame her fright, and Carol leaned down and cautiously rolled the man over.

…

A loud, incessant ringing tore Hatter mercilessly from his sleep. He flailed around frantically and swatted at the bloody alarm clock, on his third attempt knocking the accursed timepiece to the floor, before realizing that it was Alice's cellphone making the racket, and that it was still the middle of the night.

Alice took one glance at the call display and quickly answered. "Mom?" The concerned sound of her voice had Hatter instantly on the alert.

"Mom, calm down! What's going on? … WHAT?... oh my god, Mom!" Then Alice started cursing. "... no, no, no. Don't call the police. Hatter and I are on our way."

Hatter was already out of bed, pulling on his trousers, his eyes not leaving Alice's concerned and now shocked face. She shot him an anxious look in response to his questioning gaze, as she continued to try to calm her mother down.

"Mom... yes... Mom, please... Look, we'll talk when I get there. Okay? I'm coming right over. Just... don't do anything. We'll be right there."

Alice clicked the phone shut and leapt out of bed and across the room in one movement.

"What's going on?" Hatter demanded, pulling his porkpie onto his head. He was already dressed and ready to run out the door.

"Jack!" Alice tugged a sweater down over her head. "He just walked into Mom's apartment."

"What?" Hatter's mind immediately started racing again. Jack, here? This wasn't good.

"Mom hit him with a lamp. He's unconscious." Alice yanked up her jeans, and grabbed for her shoes.

Hatter stopped dead. "She did what?" Alice looked up at him, immediately noticing the strange expression on his face.

"She thought he was an intruder, so..." Alice trailed off as a strange sounding snort came from Hatter's direction. He looked like he was holding his breath. Was he... laughing?

"Hatter, it isn't funny!" Alice glared at him, indignantly.

He knew it wasn't, not really, but somehow he couldn't help himself. The picture of Carol clubbing the bloody King of Hearts... well, to be honest, it tickled him, despite the situation.

Hatter cleared his throat. "Sorry," he mumbled, but the side of his mouth twitched again, and his dimple made an appearance. Alice held onto her composure for a moment longer, before she let out a small snicker as well.

"We shouldn't be laughing. My poor mom. And poor Jack."

"Don't worry, he's hard-headed."

But the amused look on Hatter's face faded when he saw Alice's face fall.

"Hatter, how are we going to explain this to Mom?" She glanced warily at the bedroom door before she slipped through and into the livingroom. "She doesn't know..."

...

They hadn't told Carol the truth.

When Carol had expressed shock, watching her typically-reserved daughter jump into the arms of the man she thought was a complete stranger, they had made up a story on the spot of how they had met through the university but hadn't seen each other in a long time.

Carol hadn't been convinced, stating that she was sure there was more to the story, but she hadn't pushed it, instead leaving the two to get reacquainted. Carol had never brought it up again, but, over time, had accepted Hatter as part of the family.

…

Jack was still lying, unconscious, on the living room floor when they arrived. Hatter had smirked at the obvious, discolored lump on the side of the king's all-too-perfect face. Alice had just rolled her eyes and made him help her get Jack onto the couch.

Carol was sitting at the table, a cup of tea in her hands, still shaking. Alice sat down across from her and reached her hand out to squeeze her mother's arm.

"Are you okay, Mom?"

Carol glared slightly at her daughter. "I need to know what is going on, Alice." She took a deep breath. "Hatter called me earlier, all frantic, saying that you hadn't made it home and that you weren't at the dojo. Then, less then a few hours later, your ex-boyfriend, who was supposed to be back in London, suddenly shows up in my apartment." Her voice was tight, and becoming increasingly high pitched and frantic. "How did he get into my apartment? Did you give him a key? And why didn't you want me to call the police?"

Hatter had walked in from the kitchen, two steaming mugs in his hands, and was now standing back, uncomfortably, waiting to hear what Alice would tell her. Alice locked eyes with him for a moment, looking nervous, then motioned him over. He sat beside her and placed a mug of tea in front of her.

Alice wrapped her hand around the cup and stared into it for a long moment, before looking up at her mom, who was still staring at her, waiting.

"Where to start," Alice mumbled, finally.

Carol gave her daughter a quizzical look. "How about starting with how Jack ended up in my apartment in the middle of the night?"

"I don't know how, Mom," Alice replied truthfully. "Strange things have been happening for a few days now."

"What sorts of things?"

Alice shared a glance with Hatter.

"What sorts of things, Alice?" Carol sounded more insistent now.

"I don't think you'll believe me." Alice's voice was almost a whisper. Hatter reached over and squeezed her hand, but stayed silent. He was going to let Alice take the lead on how much she told her mother.

"Tell me."

"Mom, remember the night that I was found in the warehouse?" Carol nodded with just a hint of a shudder, and Alice continued. "I wasn't gone for an hour. I was gone for over three days."

"What are you talking about, Alice?" Carol looked thoroughly confused now.

Alice took a deep breath, and the words spilled out so fast that they almost fell over each other. "I was in Wonderland. It isn't just a kid's book, it's real, and Hatter and Jack are both from there, not from England."

She hadn't meant to say it like that. She knew saying it like that made her sound like she was crazy. And the way that her mother was now staring at her only confirmed that.

Alice had just taken a breath, preparing to explain, when a loud groan came from the couch, and Jack started to stir.

Grateful for the escape, Alice rushed to his side.

…

His head was throbbing painfully, and his limbs felt impossibly heavy. Distantly, he was aware that someone was saying his name, calling him, but he couldn't respond or open his eyes.

"Jack... Jack..." Was it Duchess? The voice, although female and familiar, didn't sound quite right. "Hatter, get me a wet cloth... Jack, wake up..."

Hatter? Why was the voice saying Hatter? He felt something cool against his forehead. It was helping. He could almost open his eyes.

"Jack." It wasn't Duchess. He recognized the voice now.

"Alice?" He managed to open his eyes for a second, only to scrunch them shut again as pain shot through his head. This couldn't be right. "Where am I?" He fought his eyes open again, and Alice's face slowly came into focus.

"You're in my mom's apartment."

Jack tried to sit up, and instantly regretted it, as a wave of dizziness joined the throbbing pain.

"Whoa, take it easy. Slowly."

Alice reached over and helped him into a sitting position. After a long moment, Jack managed to open his eyes again. He touched the side of his face with his fingertips, wincing. "What happened?"

"Mom hit you with a lamp." Alice cringed slightly at the startled, almost angry look that crossed Jack's face. "You showed up in her apartment in the middle of the night, what do you expect?"

Jack tried to think straight, but his mind was still clouded. "I... How did I...?"

The last thing he remembered was leaving the banquet hall. Duchess had retired to his chambers nearly an hour earlier, and he was grateful to be leaving the company of the highest ranking cards for the comfort of his fiancee. And then he had woken up on a couch in Alice's world.

Which could only mean...

"A doorway," he mumbled.

Both Alice and Hatter jumped, and Hatter was down beside Jack on the couch in an instant. "What's going on with the doors?" he demanded.

Jack looked at him, a little startled by Hatter's intensity. "It seems that some doors are..." he trailed off, searching for words.

"... opening between Wonderland and here?" Hatter finished for him.

Jack looked surprised, but read the knowing look in both Alice's and Hatter's eyes quite clearly. "It happened to you?"

Hatter nodded. "A few days ago, I ended up on a ledge in the middle-city."

Alice chewed her bottom lip. "And I ended up in Hatter's old tea shop, earlier tonight. And then at the old warehouse."

"What?"

They all jumped, suddenly remembering the other person in the room. Carol was looking more shell-shocked by the second, and was staring at them all in disbelief. She looked as though she was about to collapse, and Alice was at her side in an instant, helping her down into a chair.

"Mom... look, I'll explain. Okay?" Alice glanced back at Hatter. "Hatter, could you maybe take Jack to our place? I'll come as soon as I can."

Hatter looked from Alice to Carol and nodded. He reached out his hand to help Jack up. "Come on, your highness," he stated, with mock reverence.

Carol's eyes couldn't have gotten any wider.

…

**AN: Poor Carol. But hope you enjoyed (and hopefully it was a special treat for those of you who like to see Jack get walloped... ::grin::). I know this chapter was a bit conversation-heavy and I hope I got everyone's voices right.  
**

**Please review. Constructive criticism also welcome! (I am always looking to improve my writing)  
**


	6. Chapter 5: Convincing Carol

It was getting light when Alice finally made it back to the flat. She was beyond exhausted, both physically and emotionally, and was aching for sleep and Hatter's arms.

She unlocked the front door and pushed it open, pausing long enough to silently plead with any force that would hear her that this door wouldn't deposit her back in Wonderland. She really couldn't handle that right now. She breathed a quick sigh of relief when she stepped through and found herself still very much in her world.

She quietly closed and locked the door behind her, dropping her bag and her keys on the table beside it, before tiptoeing across the livingroom. The couch was occupied – a swath of blankets moved rhythmically, and she didn't want to wake Jack. She didn't particularly want to talk to him – at least, not until she had a good long sleep.

She had nearly reached the hallway when Hatter called to her. Called to her from behind. She spun around in shock, to see Hatter's chaotic mop atop a sleepy face, peeking over the back of the couch.

"Why are you on the couch?"

Hatter gave an exaggerated sigh, and his head disappeared for a moment as he fought with the blankets and stood up. "His highness," he stated, in a mocking tone, "felt entitled to the bedroom." He shrugged. "I was too tired to argue, since I figured you'd be staying with your mum." He shot her a wry grin.

But the grin quickly disappeared as he got a clear look at Alice. Her face was pale and her eyes were puffy and red, like she'd been crying all night. She looked miserable, and completely exhausted. And the look on her face told him she wasn't far from tears now.

He was across the room in a heartbeat. He wrapped his arms protectively around her and pulled her in tight. He could feel her tremble as she returned his embrace, and a small distressed sound escaped from the back of her throat.

It took all his will not to evict Jack from their bedroom. Everything in him wanted to lay Alice down and wrap himself around her and make her feel better. Instead, he picked her up and carried her to the couch. She was crying now, burying her face into his chest.

He sat down, Alice on his lap, and pulled the blankets around them both. He stroked her hair, and kissed her head, and waited for her to calm. He desperately wanted to ask her what had happened, how things had gone at her mother's, though from the looks of her, it hadn't gone well. But instead, he just offered silent comfort and waited.

Alice grew still, breathing softly against his chest. After a long moment of silence, he started to wonder if she had fallen asleep. But then he felt her move, pull away so that she could look up at his face, without breaking contact with his body.

"Aren't you going to ask how it went?" Alice was looking at him, expectantly.

Hatter nodded. "How did it go?" His voice was soft.

Alice swallowed hard and shook her head. "Not well." Which was a profound understatement.

…

It had been hard enough to convince her mother that Wonderland was real. Although Carol was in a slightly more receptive mood, considering the events of the evening, it was still a difficult sell. To her, Wonderland had only ever been a story in a book she had read as a child, and that her husband had been in the process of reading to her daughter when he had disappeared.

It wasn't a real place.

But here was Alice, her logical and level-headed daughter, telling her a wildly imaginative tale, but with all the earnestness and honesty of someone who had lived it.

Carol's logic fought against the story as impossible, but somehow, it seemed to explain so much. Like how Alice had ended up in a run-down warehouse in the middle of the night. Like the sudden, practically overnight shift of her daughter's affections from "this one's different" Jack to her rescuer and apparent "old friend" David Hatter.

It also did a lot to explain some of Hatter's stranger idiosyncrasies. The title of "Mad Hatter" didn't quite apply, but certainly "Eccentric Hatter" fit the bill.

Alice hadn't told her mother everything. She did mention that Jack had been the prince of Wonderland, and was now king, but she didn't say that he had specifically sought her out. Instead she had said that he had come here to escape his mother. She had told her mother all about Hatter's heroism, how he had protected her and risked his life, but said nothing about how he had bought her for the price of human excitement, or that he had been, essentially, a drug dealer in Wonderland.

And she avoided certain details leading up to the fall of the casino. It wasn't that she wanted to hide it from her mother. She just didn't know how to tell her.

"Do you believe me?"

It was a simple question, whispered at the end of Alice's story.

Carol stared at her daughter for several minutes without saying anything. Finally, she shook her head. "It's hard for me to believe, Alice. You have to understand that." She massaged her temples, fighting off the start of a bad headache. "But I can see that you're not lying."

Alice released a breath she didn't realize she had been holding. But her mother's next words caught her completely off guard.

"Why you?"

Alice furrowed her brow. "What do you mean?"

Carol took a deep breath and released it slowly. It was still hard enough to try to wrap her head around this, without having to try to better articulate what she wasn't even sure how to ask. "Alice, I understand the whole name thing. A girl named Alice... saved Wonderland the first time, so maybe an Alice could do it again. But..." Her mind fought against the use of logical questioning to understand something completely illogical. "But there are a lot of girls named Alice. Why were you... I suppose chosen would be the only thing to call it?"

Alice swallowed hard, and she blinked against the hot prickle at the back of her eyes that threatened to turn into tears.

Her mother noticed immediately, and her face creased with concern. "Alice?"

"Because of Dad," Alice finally managed.

Carol sucked in a breath, surprised. "What does your father have to do with this?"

"He was there," Alice replied in a small voice.

Carol closed her eyes, her mind continuing to struggle. "What do you mean?" she forced out, not opening her eyes.

Alice swallowed hard around a growing lump in her throat, and the first sound she made was more a choked whimper then a word. She didn't want to answer. She didn't want to face it. While she was in Wonderland, setting things to right had forced the memory to the back of her mind. And other then one weak moment in the hospital, she had found it easier to let the memory stay there, the one unresolved shred of her adventure in Wonderland.

But now she had no choice.

"Dad was there. In Wonderland. He didn't leave us, not on purpose. He was taken, and they did something to him so that he wouldn't remember us. Jack came to find me, to see if I could help him remember."

…

"... so I told her everything. I told her what Dad did, that he was Carpenter, and that he did remember me at the end, and that he let them shoot him to save my life." Alice was sobbing into Hatter's chest again, and it tore at Hatter's heart to see her so broken.

"How did Carol react?" Hatter kicked himself for asking more questions, stirring up more pain. He could imagine how Carol reacted. Finding out that her husband was dead, and that he didn't abandon them after all – she was likely as shattered as Alice, if not more.

Alice gasped for breath, struggling to regain control. "Mom was really upset."

…

The tears were streaming down Carol's face, and the pain in her chest was almost unbearable, even as she struggled to believe what she heard coming from her daughter's mouth. Her daughter's waking words in the hospital, after she had been found in the warehouse, rang painfully in her mind.

"_He's gone."_

"_Who's gone?"_

"_Dad."_

Then the anger came, and the tears fell hot against her cheeks, as she stared at her daughter.

"Were you ever going to tell me? If Jack hadn't shown up, were you ever going to tell me that Robert..." The pain overwhelmed her for a moment. "Eight months, Alice. It's been eight months. Were you ever going to tell me?"

Alice was shocked by the harsh tone, and shrank away from the anger she saw burning in her mother's eyes. "I'm... I'm sorry."

Carol had taken one long, shuddering breath and stood up. Holding a hand over her mouth to stifle a sob, her shoulders shaking, she had turned and rushed up the hallway. And Alice heard the bedroom door shut with a resounding click.

...

Exhaustion had finally claimed Alice, but Hatter had been unable to fall back to sleep. The couch was not really large enough for the two to sleep comfortably anyway, so after Alice had fallen into a deeper sleep, he had eased out from under her, lay her down properly and tucked the blankets around her.

And he had gone to the kitchen to make a cup of tea.

There was no way he was going into work today, and he was sure, after the night she had, neither was Alice.

That, and they had to deal with a certain king of Wonderland, currently missing from his kingdom. And the fact that doors were randomly opening between Wonderland and this world.

Hatter took a sip of tea, and sighed heavily.

…

Jack had spoken a little, on the walk home from Carol's apartment, about what was transpiring between Wonderland and this world, and the chaos it was causing. There were currently four people that Jack knew of, that were missing from Wonderland. They had also found three oysters, who should not have been in Wonderland. Two of them were alive. The other appeared to have walked off a ledge and fallen several stories to his death.

He hadn't said much more, mostly just complained that his head hurt, and Hatter had stopped in at a 24 hour shop to get him some pain pills. And when they had reached the flat, Jack had simply claimed the bedroom, while Hatter was gathering blankets to set up a bed for him on the couch.

...

Hatter hoped that there would be more information forthcoming this morning. And he really hoped that they would not be stuck with this unexpected houseguest for long.

…

**AN: … okay, this chapter turned out quite a bit differently then I had initially planned for. It kind of went off into Carol's reaction more then I was intending, but the next chapter will be back, focused on the situation at hand.**

**Please let me know if it gets confusing... I know I tend to jump back and forth a lot (POV's, timelines, etc).**

**Please review. It makes my day!**


	7. Chapter 6: Not Again!

**AN: I apologize for the long delay in getting updates. Life has been a little... hectic lately, and my muse tends to abandon me whenever that happens. Please bear with me, but I will try to have new chapters up a little more frequently then I have been so far.**

**In any case, enjoy. And please review. Thanks very much to those who do regularly review my work... it means so much. Cheers!**

...

The first thing Jack noticed when he woke up was his excruciating headache. His head throbbed and pounded, so painfully that coherent thought was practically impossible. The next thing that Jack noticed was that he was not in his own bedroom. Or rather, that he was in a bedroom that had been his, but a bedroom he had not inhabited in nearly a year.

The memories of what had occurred late last night all rushed to the forefront of his brain, along with another stab of pain. He groaned and sank against the pillow again. He had come through a door in Wonderland, and ended up in Carol's apartment. And she had attacked him. He reached up gingerly and felt the side of his face, alarmed when his fingers came in contact with a swollen lump on the side of his left cheekbone.

He threw off the covers and rushed toward the small bathroom. A wave of dizziness caused him to pause and lean heavily on the doorjamb for a moment, before he flicked on the light and caught his reflection in the bathroom mirror.

…

Hatter had been dozing at the kitchen table over his third cup of tea, when a loud yell sounded from the direction of the bedroom. He jerked roughly, banging his knee into the table leg and sending his teacup flying.

But he barely noticed. He was on his feet in an instant, rushing down the hall toward the bedroom door. The yell had not sounded particularly alarmed, more perturbed, but with the recent, unexpected crossings between Wonderland and this world, he wasn't taking any chances – especially not while the King of Hearts was here.

He clenched his right fist, poised to strike if there was any threat. Then he kicked the bedroom door open and charged through.

…

Jack couldn't contain the indignant yelp at the sight of his swollen and discolored features. The side of his face was a deepened, angry purple and his left eye sported a dark red bruise. He looked awful. A brief flare of anger flooded him, before he could temper it with reason.

He heard the commotion in the hallway, the sound of running steps thudding toward the bedroom, only seconds before the door burst open, hitting the wall with a hard bang that made him jump. He instinctively backed himself against the bathroom wall, out of sight from the doorway. But after a moment, he peered around the corner.

There was no one there. Only the door, still swinging slightly, and a new dent in the bedroom wall.

…

The sound of a door banging, loudly, jolted Alice from her sleep and into a sitting position in a heartbeat. Her heart was pounding, but it took only seconds for the effect of being startled awake to be replaced by anger and annoyance at whoever had slammed the door. After the night she had, was it really too much to ask to have a few hours of uninterrupted sleep?

She was about to flop back down when she saw Jack emerge from the hallway, a confused and slightly concerned look creasing his face. His eyes met hers, and he paused for a moment, before coming further into the livingroom and looking around a bit.

"What?"

Alice hadn't intended to snap at Jack, but it came out that way anyhow. He wasn't supposed to be here. And because he was here, she had ended up hurting her mom. And then come home to find that he had taken the bedroom, leaving her and Hatter to try to sleep on the couch.

Hatter. She looked around the room, but couldn't see him. Then she looked back at Jack.

"Where's Hatter?"

The question came from both of them in unison.

…

He should have paused. He should have checked before rushing through.

It wasn't his bedroom on the other side of the door.

Hatter skidded on the slick marble floor, and nearly crashed into a group of suits and a very startled looking Ten of Clubs. By the time he had regained his balance, there were three guns pointed at him.

Hatter cautiously raised his hands, and started to curse.

…

Alice hit the wall beside the door frame, frustrated. For the last five minutes, she had been rushing back and forth through the bedroom door, hoping to land up with Hatter in Wonderland, but each time had just ended up back in the bedroom or the hallway.

"Are you sure?"

Jack sighed and ran his hands through his usually-immaculate hair. "I heard him coming up the hallway, then the door flew open, but he didn't come through." He shook his head. "It had to be a doorway. It's the only explanation."

Alice pushed her fingers against her temples, trying to stave off an impending headache. "Fine," she growled finally, looking pointedly at Jack. "I need you to tell me everything you know about what is going on with the doors."

…

"So, the king is safe, then?"

It had taken the Ten of Clubs several moments to recover from his surprise, seeing Hatter burst through the foyer doors. But he had quickly insisted that the suits stand down (much to Hatter's relief), and had just as swiftly dismissed them altogether, and taken Hatter to a small but comfortable sitting room out of public view.

Hatter let his head drop back and closed his eyes for a moment before answering. "Jack's fine. Well, mostly." He lifted his head a little and quirked the corner of his mouth in a half-grin. "Might not be so pretty for a bit."

Ten choked down an inappropriate chuckle, although the look in his eyes told him Hatter caught it anyway. It had taken all Ten's years of schooling his features and hiding his emotions to not show his mirth as Hatter told him how Alice's mother had rendered the king unconscious with a metal lamp. But he was relieved to know the king's whereabouts, and that he was, for the moment, safe.

Hatter gave a sigh and leaned forward so his elbows rested on his knees. "So, what's causing this?"

Ten glanced apologetically at Hatter. "I'm not sure how much I can tell you. What do you already know?"

Hatter shook his head. "Not much. Jack told me that some people were missing, and that some oysters had been found in Wonderland. I was hoping to find out more this morning... B'fore this happened." He wiped at his eyes with his hands, trying to banish the heaviness caused by his lack of sleep. "I've ended up here twice now. It happened to Alice once too. And now we have to deal with Jack... well, she has to. Looks like I'm stuck here for now." Hatter tried to hide it, but Ten could read the concern in his eyes. Hatter was worried. Very worried.

Ten nodded sympathetically. "I'll talk to some people, see what answers I can get for you."

Hatter nodded gratefully, and wiped his hand across his eyes again before pulling it through his hair.

"In the meantime, I'll have a room prepared. You look like you could use some rest."

Hatter didn't argue.

…

**AN: Short chapter, I know, but it was a good place to break... the adventure will resume once poor, tired Hatter has had a bit of sleep.**

**:) Please review. Constructive criticism always welcome as well! Cheers!**


	8. Chapter 7: Answers

...

Hatter doubted he'd be able to sleep, but regardless, the bed that he had been provided with proved to be extremely comfortable after only a half-night's sleep on the couch. And it did feel good to be lying down.

But he was worried – very worried – about once again being stuck on this side of the looking glass, and worried all the more that Alice was now alone with bloody Jack Heart. A slight surge of jealousy rose, unbidden, in his chest. It wasn't that he didn't trust Alice. He knew that whatever feelings Alice ever had for the king were long gone, even before she had left Wonderland the first time, but he still did not like the idea of the two of them being alone without him.

Unfortunately, for now, it could not be helped. Jack was stuck in Alice's world and he was stuck in Wonderland, and until a door provided a way back for either, that was how it would stay. He glared for a moment at the only door in his line of sight – the one leading back to the hallway – then let out a long sigh and closed his eyes. Hopefully he would at least be able to get some answers while he was here.

…

A firm knock on the door caused Hatter's eyes to fly open once again. He lay still for a moment, staring at the ceiling. The shadows in the room had changed, shortened. Apparently he had fallen asleep, as it appeared to be close to noon now.

In the heart of the city, it was difficult to tell the time from the fall of the shadows. Being built so tall, much of the city rested in shadow for most of the day. But the palace was built outside the city, and as such, the fall of the shadows proved far more accurate.

The knock came again on the door, a little more insistent this time. Hatter swung his legs off the bed and made his way to the door, just as it opened to reveal a suit, a four of spades.

He nodded curtly at Hatter, before declaring, "You are to be taken to the Hospital of Dreams. Caterpillar has chosen to speak with you."

Hatter swallowed hard. He had only once been to Caterpillar's hospital, thankfully not as a patient, and it was not a place he had ever wanted to be again. Beautiful enough on the inside, but filled with the shrieks, howls, and insane laughter of the patient inmates. And there were stories of the types of treatments that Caterpillar and his scientists prescribed.

But getting to meet with Caterpillar himself was a rare opportunity, one that he had never been given, and he was sure if anyone had answers, Caterpillar did.

"There are some clean clothes in the wardrobe. We'll give you a few minutes to prepare."

Hatter nodded mutely, and the suit backed out the door again, pulling it shut behind him.

The clothes in the wardrobe were a little on the large side for his frame, and looked like Jack's discards. The trousers hung a bit too long and were a dark red in color. The button down shirt was white and... ruffled? in the front. Hatter cringed at the sight of them.

But then again, they were clean and hadn't been slept in, unlike the rumpled clothing he was currently wearing. Grumbling slightly, he started to change. If he had time later, he would try to make it to the old tea shop and see if he could get some real clothing out of the concealed room. And a hat. He desperately wished he had been wearing a hat when he had gone through the door.

…

Hatter shuddered as a haunting echo of maniacal laughter echoed through the grill in the ceiling of the elevator car. He almost wished a door here would swallow him up and dump him back into the other world.

The creepy receptionist, with her affinity for tormenting large bugs, had told him that Caterpillar was on the twelfth floor, and Hatter hoped he'd find him relatively swiftly and not have to search the entire floor.

And luck was on his side this time. The elevator opened to a single, large room. The far wall was a mass of clockwork wheels, all turning against each other at once, but without a clock to be seen. The noise from the gears should have been deafening, but instead they emitted only a soft grinding and clanking. Otherwise the room was silent. Silent, and mostly empty.

It took Hatter a long moment to see Caterpillar. He seemed almost camouflaged as well as dwarfed by the wall of clockwork. He was seated by a low table, on a chair that looked strangely like a squat brown mushroom. A hookah was situated on another low mushroom chair, and a third was unoccupied. Stacks of books surrounded the table, and Caterpillar seemed intent on a scroll of old paper on the table, but as Hatter approached, he saw that it was blank.

Caterpillar had shown no sign of being aware of Hatter's approach, which is why Hatter nearly jumped out of his skin when Caterpillar spoke.

"What was the looking glass?"

Hatter stopped short, and looked quizzically at the old man before him, unsure if he was meant to answer or if Caterpillar was simply talking to himself.

Caterpillar drew a long breath from the hookah and blew out a smoke ring, then looked through his thick glasses, directly at Hatter and asked again. "What was the looking glass?"

Hatter hesitated for a moment before he replied, "It was a portal between Wonderland and the Oyster world?" He ended it like a question, unsure if it was the answer Caterpillar was looking for. But Caterpillar said nothing, just continued to watch him with bespectacled eyes. So after a moment, Hatter continued. "It was made by the knights, so that there could be a permanent passage between the two worlds."

Caterpillar blew another smoke ring, and turned back to his scroll of papers. "The knights did not make it," he stated, his voice low and bordering on a monotone. "They merely... captured it."

Hatter stared at the old man. "Come again?"

Caterpillar looked up from his papers, a strange look in his dark gray eyes. "What was the looking glass?" he asked again, causing Hatter to let out a huff of frustration.

He had been warned that Caterpillar rarely started a conversation by speaking directly. Warned that Caterpillar asked more questions then he answered. But he wasn't sure what answer Caterpillar was after, or how this related to the doors.

When Hatter didn't answer this time, Caterpillar told him. "The looking glass was a rabbit hole."

Hatter's eyes blew wide with surprise. "A rabbit hole?" He hadn't thought of it as such, but it made sense. Back when magic and chaos ruled Wonderland, rabbit holes would sometimes, inexplicably, open between the two worlds, and if someone fell into one, they would be whisked away to land in the other world. It was how the first Alice of Legend had come.

"The Knights captured a rabbit hole. They contained it in the looking glass, and stabilized it with a stone."

Hatter sat down on the remaining mushroom chair, digesting the new information he was hearing, his mind already starting to work on the connection. It was like a puzzle, starting to come together in Hatter's head, but still missing the pieces that would complete the picture so he could see what it was. But Caterpillar now had his undivided attention.

"So when Jack broke the looking glass..."

"... the rabbit hole was released," Caterpillar finished for him. He drew another breath from his hookah, then posed another question. "Why is a door like a rabbit hole?"

_Why is a raven like a writing desk?_ Hatter's mind instantly quipped. But unlike that riddle, this one had an answer. "When you go through one, you end up somewhere else." The answer was out of his mouth before the thought was fully formed.

"Precisely."

The final piece of the puzzle clicked into place. Hatter's mind was reeling. "So, when the rabbit hole was released from the looking glass, it went into the doors instead?" Hatter waited for confirmation from the old man before him, but Caterpillar was once again absorbed in the scroll of papers before him, and did not reply.

As the silence stretched on, another question formed in Hatter's mind. "So, how do we fix this?"

…

"So, when you broke the looking glass, the magic that was in it went into the doors instead?" Alice felt a sickening feeling growing in the pit of her stomach.

Jack nodded. "From what we can tell, yes."

Something niggled in the back of Alice's mind, something that didn't quite sit right. "But when I went through a door into Wonderland..." Alice trailed off for a moment, trying to formulate her thought. "It felt... different then going through the looking glass."

Jack looked at her quizzically. "Different?"

"There was no falling or swirling colors," she stated. "It was just... like walking from one room to the next, only one moment I was here and the next I was there."

"That's the way doors work," Jack replied. "You step through one and end up somewhere else."

Alice shook her head, not really understanding, but a more pressing question burned in her mind. "So, at any time, any door in your world or mine could be affected?"

Jack nodded yes.

"And anyone from either of our worlds could end up... in the other world?" The sickening feeling was increasing.

Alice braced herself for another nod, but instead Jack shook his head.

"It seems," Jack started, "at least, so far as we can tell, that the only people being affected by the doors are people who have been in both worlds before." At Alice's quizzical look, he continued. "It's only affecting people who have, at one time or other, been through the looking glass."

Alice couldn't contain the sigh of relief. At least that meant her mother was safe, that she wouldn't accidentally walk through a door and into Wonderland. But then another thought struck her. "So the people you've found, from my world..."

"Some of the oysters from the casino," Jack confirmed.

Alice swallowed hard at the thought of the poor people she had helped rescue becoming stuck again in Wonderland. Especially as unsafe as Wonderland was right now.

"So..." Alice barely wanted to ask, but knew she had to. "... how do we fix this?"

Jack seemed to slump slightly in his chair. "We don't know how to fix it."

…

**AN: So, there's a few answers to the question of the doors... but the most important question remains - "How do we fix this?" Stay tuned. Much more adventure to come.**

**Please review! :)**


	9. Chapter 8: Day Five

**AN: Sorry about the long update time... my brain was rather cooked (almost literally) for the last couple of weeks (was sick). But, voila... long chapter! Enjoy, and please review. Thanks so much to everyone who has reviewed. Might I just say... YOU ROCK!**

...

"Look, there's something going on right now. I'll have David call you as soon as he can."

"You tell David that if he doesn't make tomorrow's shift, he can find himself another job!"

Alice fought back tears as she threw the phone down on the table. She had been letting the answering machine pick up the calls, but she knew she had to deal with Hatter's boss eventually. After all, she didn't want anyone else looking into Hatter's disappearance.

She had already had to create lie upon lie to explain Hatter's sudden absence, and the corresponding sudden reappearance of her ex-boyfriend. And she had to act like things were okay, when every passing day only heightened her stress and concern.

It had caused a lot of raised eyebrows at the dojo when Jack had started taking her classes again. She told her co-workers that Hatter was well aware of Jack's presence, that Jack and Hatter were working together on a new business venture. She could tell they weren't entirely convinced, but it had, at least, quieted some of the speculation.

She knew she needed to keep Jack close. He didn't belong here. And if he disappeared, she needed to know that it was because a door had opened back to Wonderland. And if it did, she was going to follow him through.

Follow him through and find Hatter.

The first time Hatter had ended up in Wonderland, it had only been for a few minutes. When she had gone through, it had only taken an hour or two to get back. Now, it had been five days. Five days of not knowing where Hatter was, or even if he was safe. She kept hoping to walk into the apartment and find him in the kitchen making tea, or for him to walk back through the bathroom door. Or even call her to let her know he was somewhere else, but at least back in her world.

The fact that Hatter hadn't found a door back to her world worried her endlessly. And the fact that no door had opened to bring Jack back to Wonderland either only heightened her concern.

What if the doors had stopped working? Alice's chest constricted at the thought, causing her to gasp painfully for breath. What if Hatter was permanently stuck in Wonderland, and she was permanently stuck with Jack? The idea horrified her, and had her tearing up the hall in an instant.

She approached the bedroom door, trembling. She placed both of her hands on the doorknob and leaned her forehead against the door itself. "Let me through," she pleaded with it. "Please!" Then she turned the knob and opened the door.

…

Jack found her on the floor, leaning against the bedroom wall, tear tracks still visible on her face. She was staring at the bedroom door, but Jack wasn't sure she was seeing anything at all.

Concerned, he crouched down beside her and gently placed a hand on her arm. She flinched away from him, a reaction that stung, but it had the effect of waking her up, drawing her eyes from the door.

Jack rose to his feet and reached down a hand to help her up. She reluctantly took it and allowed herself to be pulled up. As soon as she was standing, she pulled her hand away and refused to make eye contact.

"Alice, are you alright?" Jack was standing close, gazing at her with concern. The look on his face reminded her too much of the night they had dinner with her mother, and he had acted the role of the caring boyfriend when her mother had mentioned her father's disappearance. It certainly wasn't making her feel better now.

"No, I'm not alright," Alice snapped, then cringed at her own tone. "Hatter's still in Wonderland, and you're still here, and the doors..." Alice bit her lip as her eyes got bright. "... the doors aren't working."

…

It had only taken Hatter two days to follow Alice, when she left Wonderland. And it would have only taken him two minutes, but he had been physically restrained by a few of Jack's suits, and made to see reason. He needed an identity, money, and a place to live, all which Jack provided for him, a thank you for his "service to Wonderland" but it took time to set up. And it had still been all he could do to not rashly leap through the looking glass the first moment someone turned their back. When he had finally been allowed through, he had never looked back. And he had never been apart from Alice for more than two days since.

He had been trapped in Wonderland for five days now.

Five exceptionally long days. But it wasn't time that bothered him the most. It was not knowing when, or if, a door would open to reunite him with his Alice. If he knew that, three days from now a door would open to let him back to Alice's world, or even a week from now or a month from now, he was certain he could handle it. But not knowing was tearing him apart.

He kept himself busy. It was the only way to keep himself sane.

After meeting with Caterpillar, Hatter had made another, rather dreaded, trip. Flanked by armed suits, as he felt sure that Dodo wouldn't hesitate to shoot him if given the chance, he visited the Great Library. Dodo had been most unimpressed to see him, and even less impressed to see his armed guards. But Hatter had endured his bellowed tirade, hurled insults and accusations, adding only the occasional minced barb of his own, and they had eventually come to an uneasy truce, and Hatter had been given access to the resources. Dodo had even gone so far as to wave him toward the part of the library that housed the books rescued from the Kingdom of the Knights. Hatter had left, his arms heavily laden with books. And every spare minute he had after, he devoted to pouring over the ancient script, looking for anything to do with rabbit-holes or looking glasses or the other world.

He had found the ledge he had first come through, and the broken blue door hanging crookedly on its hinges, but it only opened to a brick wall again, and this time no amount of physical force could convince it otherwise.

He had stopped by the tea shop and visited with Dormie for a bit. The building looked even more run down then the last time he had seen it, and there were obvious signs of repeated raids. His secret room, however, had gone undetected, so he now had a few of his own clothes, and to his great relief, a hat. He also found quite a few of his gold rings, and had slipped several of them onto his fingers in case he needed to trade them for anything. There had even been a few bottles of his more valuable emotion teas hidden there, but he had quickly destroyed them, much to Dormie's dismay. Dormie had followed him all the way to the door, reciting the value of what Hatter had just destroyed. He had only gone silent when Hatter had clenched his right fist.

At night he was haunted by nightmares. Trapped in an unending hallway full of doors, he could hear Alice calling for him, desperately. But every door he opened only led to another endless hallway full of doors. Alice's voice would become more frantic with every door he opened, but also sound further and further away, until it faded away altogether.

He'd wake up in a panic, and spend the rest of the night walking through doors, praying that one would send him back to Alice.

The voice of solace came in the form of the Ten of Clubs. Since his arrival back in Wonderland, Ten, or rather Cruz as he finally introduced himself, had joined him for meals and tea, and the occasional walk around the palace. Hatter had quickly found that he liked the man, and they had bonded over their mutual mockery of Jack. When anyone else was about, Cruz was always very careful, but he had dropped his courtly manner around Hatter, and the two now regularly matched wits when they were alone. If one good thing had come of Hatter's return to Wonderland, it was this unexpected friendship.

Noting Hatter's need to occupy his time, Ten sent him on errands, and placed him in charge of the oysters who were staying at the palace. He was even sent on the "rescue" missions into the city when word came of other possible oyster sightings.

It was Ten who also sent word to Charlie, informing him of Hatter's presence in Wonderland and inviting him to come. The old knight had been missing his friends dearly since the demolition of the looking glass, and he would, undoubtedly, be happy to see his "Harbinger" again. That, and the council hoped that the last remaining relic of the ancient kingdom might be able to shed some light on the current situation.

Ten was very happy to hear the news that the White Knight had been spotted, making his way through the city on horseback (though how that was even possible was a mystery). He would be here soon, but in Ten's mind he couldn't be here fast enough.

Ten found Hatter sitting on the foyer floor, by the door he had initially come through five days earlier. His hat was in his hands and his shoulders were slumped. His clothes were rumpled and he looked like he hadn't slept all night – or perhaps had slept there on the floor. One of the impossibly large ancient tomes lay open on the floor beside him, but he was no longer looking at it. People passing by were giving the man strange looks, but Hatter seemed completely unaware. Ten pursed his lips, before ordering everyone out of the room and having the doors closed behind them.

He strode over to where Hatter sat, gave a short sigh, then slid down the wall to sit beside him. Hatter didn't look up, didn't acknowledge him. Ten wondered if Hatter even realized he was there.

"I need to get back." Hatter finally raised his head and looked at Ten with tired, anxious eyes. "I need to make sure Alice is okay."

Ten looked at his friend, concern written on his face. "You'll find a way, Hatter. And in the meantime, she has the king to look after her."

That drew a slight snort from Hatter, despite his mood. "That supposed to make me feel better?"

Ten chuckled slightly, glad for the bit of response. "I suppose not."

Hatter heaved a sigh. "I can't stop dreaming... dreaming that every door I go through is taking me further and further away from Alice. Like I'll not get back."

"It's just a dream," Ten reassured him. "It's only been a few days, Hatter. You'll get back." He briefly placed a reassuring hand on Hatter's shoulder, before he slid back up the wall and extended a hand down to Hatter.

After a moment, Hatter grasped it and allowed Ten to pull him to his feet. He wiped a hand across his face, and flipped his hat back onto his head. He looked down at the book on the floor. "Don't think this one'll be much help either. I'll have to go back to the library."

Ten shook his head again. Hatter's obsession with the texts from the Kingdom of the Knights was almost as great as his obsession with finding any door that was rumored to have brought or banished anyone from Wonderland. And distracting him from it was getting harder and harder.

"Perhaps," Ten replied. "But not today." He smirked slightly at Hatter's surprised look. "You're having a visitor."

Hatter looked at Ten curiously. "Who?"

"I sent word to Sir Charles a few days ago. He's on his way here as we speak." Ten smiled when he saw Hatter's face brighten.

"Charlie!"

…

It wasn't Jack's fault.

She had to keep reminding herself of that, but it was getting harder and harder not to pick fights with him as the day went on.

Alice felt like she was wound tighter then a spring, and that at any moment she was going to reach the breaking point and fly apart. And Jack seemed to constantly be in the way. The usually spacious apartment was feeling increasingly tight and claustrophobic.

And more then anything, she just wanted some space, some distance from Jack, so that she could think. So that she could let out her emotions. So that she could miss Hatter properly.

Jack had finally snapped back at her. Up until that point, he had quietly, and with schooled emotionlessness, taken her anger. But after putting up with her temper and mood for most of the day, he'd had enough.

"You aren't the only one who's missing someone they love, Alice. I haven't seen Charlotte in as many days as you haven't seen Hatter." He kept his voice level, but Alice could now clearly see the worry and loneliness in his eyes too.

Alice struggled to see his relationship with the Duchess on the same level as her relationship with Hatter. The fact that he had cheated on his Duchess with Alice, and then proposed to Alice first once Wonderland was taken, to Alice didn't speak volumes to their love. But she hadn't seen them together since. Duchess had never come through the glass. Jack had come to visit on occasion, or to beg a favor, but she hadn't seen Duchess since the day that she had left Wonderland.

But the guilt settled in then, over top of everything else. She knew he was right. And she should apologize, but she couldn't quite find the way to do it. So now they were both sitting silently, not even benefiting from each other's companionship.

She was barely picking at the Chinese food that they had ordered in for dinner. Hatter was a great cook, and enjoyed it, which worked well for Alice since she was only average at best and didn't like cooking at all. Since Hatter's disappearance, she hadn't even tried to cook for Jack. Instead it had been pizza or Chinese or fried chicken, but always ordered in. She didn't want to have to explain why she was out with another man, if anyone saw her.

But she was tired of take-out. And tired of the lies and the hiding. She was tired of sleeping alone, even though she had, in no uncertain terms, reclaimed the bedroom. And she wanted her Hatter back.

Finally she gave up, pushing the sweet and sour pork away from her. "I'm going for a walk," she announced. Jack dutifully rose, ready to get his jacket, but she stopped him in a word. "Alone."

…

The White Knight had been taking his time, coming through the city. Ten wasn't sure why it was taking so long. The city was not a good place for sightseeing at the moment, and it really wasn't terribly safe. However, Sir Charles was somewhat of a folk hero, as legend was that he had defeated the Queen's suits with an army of skeletons, so he'd likely go unscathed.

But where Ten had expected Charlie to arrive close to noon, the White Knight was not visible from the palace gate until closer to tea time. However, expectation had buoyed Hatter's mood for the day, and he had been keeping himself busy, looking after the oysters, and that was what Ten had been hoping for.

"He's here. They're just tending to his horses now."

"Have him sent up."

Ten smiled at the news that Nine brought him. From the corner of his eye, he could see that Hatter, struggling to look engrossed in the book in front of him, had overheard. The man's dimple had made its first appearance in days.

It was still nearly twenty minutes before the door to the foyer flew open again. Ten and Hatter were both waiting, with barely veiled anticipation. But it wasn't the White Knight who charged through the door, but the Nine of Clubs, wringing his hands and looking distraught.

"The Knight. The Knight has disappeared! A door..." Nine trailed off, aware of all eyes in the room on him.

Hatter and Ten exchanged a look of shock, and Hatter started cursing.

The streets of New York were dangerous for a man who talked and dressed like a lunatic. When he had come to visit in the past, Jack had always demanded that he wear normal clothing, and even then he still stood out with his strange beard and even stranger mannerisms. But he would have traveled from the Kingdom in his full white armor. Which meant...

"Where?" Hatter demanded.

Nine timidly pointed back the direction he had come.

"Show me!"

With a nervous look back at Ten, who nodded, Nine scuttled back out the door, Hatter tight on his heels. Ten cursed silently and started to run after them.

There were so many doors here. Hatter hadn't stopped to think that Charlie could end up vanishing too. Charlie's home in the ruins of the Kingdom had no doors, so he hadn't been in any danger of disappearing to the other world.. But not three minutes into his time at the palace, and he had found what Hatter could not. A door back to Alice's world.

Hatter cursed again and followed Nine through yet another set of doors.

…

The cool breeze felt good on Alice's skin, and it soothed her stinging eyes. She meandered for quite some time, not sure where she was going, not sure if she cared.

Every door she passed drew her attention. Did any of them lead to Wonderland, and not to the shop beyond them? She looked for anything that might give her a clue – perhaps some glowing or sparkling around the edges, or anything inherently Wonderlandish. But they all looked the same – ordinary New York doors. And she doubted that any of them would let her through to Wonderland.

This wasn't helping. She shook her head fiercely, and determinedly left the rows of shops and headed for the park.

There were no children in the playground, so she sat down on a swing and pushed herself in lazy circles. She tried to let her mind go blank, but instead it conjured up images of Hatter, of that dimpled smile she missed, and those warm chocolate brown eyes.

"I miss you," she said softly, into the air.

The breeze that had felt so good when she had started her walk was starting to chill her. She knew she should head back home, apologize to Jack, and try to keep her emotions better in check. The doors couldn't keep them apart forever... could they? Somehow they would find a way back to each other.

She passed by her mom's apartment building on the way home, and winced again at the memory of the pain in her mom's eyes. Her mom had called her the next day, told her that she had taken leave from work and was going out of town. She had still sounded so broken that Alice couldn't bring herself to tell Carol that Hatter had disappeared. She had just told her mom to have a good trip and that she loved her. What she wouldn't do to have her mom to talk to now, but she wasn't even sure where her mom went.

Sighing deeply, she pulled her jacket tight and wrapped her arms around herself, and continued toward her apartment.

It was an all-too-familiar voice that dragged her sharply from her thoughts.

"Scoundrel! Nug-face!"

There was the blast of a car-horn, and then someone shouting obscenities.

"You and your... machine don't scare me. I am a knight!"

"You're a loony!" someone else yelled.

Alice rushed up to the growing crowd of spectators. There was a yellow cab half-parked on the curb, and a very angry looking Charlie, in full white armor, glaring viciously between the cabbie and a passer-by who had gotten involved somehow.

"Charlie!"

The White Knight spun around, and his whole face lit up when he saw her. "JustAlice!" Then he glared again at the two men. "I was just about to teach these scallywags here a lesson."

That earned a contemptuous laugh from the man on the street.

Alice rushed forward and grabbed Charlie by the arm. "Maybe another time, Uncle Charlie." She emphasized "uncle" as she tried to drag him away. The crowd was growing larger every minute. There was nothing people liked better then a show. "We should get home, okay?"

"Yeah, get on home old man," the cabbie threw in. He revved his engine once, and Charlie jumped back slightly. The cabbie smirked as he drove away.

"Buffoon!" Charlie called after him, shaking his fist. "Dunderhead!"

"Charlie!" Alice pulled hard on his arm again. The crowd was thoroughly enjoying the show now. "We need to get home. Jack will want to see you."

Charlie's face lit up again. "The King? He's here?"

A ripple of laughter went through the crowd, and Alice played along by rolling her eyes. She hoped the crowd would just see Charlie as a harmless, crazy old man. But regardless, she wanted to get him off the street... now!"

"Yes, he's at the apartment. Come on!"

That seemed to be all the convincing Charlie needed, and he quite willingly followed Alice the rest of the way, chattering away about the state of her city and its inhabitants, and how the king ought not to be here when he had a kingdom to rule. Alice just worried about what she was going to do, now that she had two unexpected house guests.

…

Jack was on the phone when she re-entered the apartment. His eyebrows shot up when he saw Charlie following her, and he shook his head and pressed his palm to his forehead.. But his attention was quickly drawn back to his phone conversation.

He seemed concerned, and he was obviously trying to calm down whoever was on the other line. After a few more moments, he pulled the phone from his ear with a sigh, and held it out to Alice.

"It's Hatter," he stated as Alice's jaw dropped and she snatched the phone from him. "He's in London."

…

**AN: Okay, so... busy chapter but I couldn't figure anywhere else to break, so you got the bonus of it being longer then most. Hope you enjoyed. I had fun writing Charlie in this one. :)**

**Please review! As you know (since I say it often enough), they make my day!**

**Cheers!**


	10. Chapter 9: The Other Side of the World

**AN: Sorry for the long update times... writer's block. Seems to finally be letting up now, and voila... long chapter! **

**Thanks for reading!**

...

Hatter would never get over how quick a transition it was, going through a door. One moment, he was chasing the Nine of Clubs through the hallways of the palace, the next, he was in some sort of public toilet. The first thing he noted, and much to his relief, was that it was obviously a men's public toilet, judging by the wall of urinals. The second thing he noted was the muffled sound of... traffic!

He was back in Alice's world! He pulled open the door he had just come through, and looked out into a lobby of sorts. Not the palace. Not Wonderland. He cautiously stepped through, and breathed a sigh of relief when he could still hear the traffic, a little louder now, through glass doors that seemed to take up much of one wall of the foyer he was now in.

Definitely Alice's world! He couldn't stop the grin that spread across his face, and the deep sigh of relief, as the glass doors swung outward, automatically, and he found himself on the sidewalk.

But in an instant, his elation turned to confusion.

Wherever this was, it didn't appear to be New York. Yes, there was the constant crush and rush of people. He had to press himself against the side of the building to not be swept along with the crowds. Yes, there was the constant roar of traffic, but the cars were behaving strangely. At first, Hatter couldn't quite put his finger on what was so strange, but then it hit him. It was all backwards. The cars were driving on the wrong side of the street.

A bit apprehensive now, Hatter surveyed the skyline. Definitely not New York. The buildings were all wrong too. The signs were all in English, much to his relief, but he still wasn't quite sure where he had ended up.

"S'cuse me?" He stopped a passerby, an older gentleman in a suit. "Where 'bouts am I?"

"Victoria Street," the man replied, before continuing on his way.

Victoria Street? Great. Victoria Street, where?

"S'cuse me?" This time he stopped a younger man in a printed t-shirt and jeans. "Where am I? What city is this?"

The man looked at him incredulously. "Ya serious, mate?"

This time it was Hatter's turn to be shocked. The man sounded like a Wonderlander. His accent wasn't much different from Hatter's own. But he certainly didn't look like he was from Wonderland, and Hatter wasn't about to ask.

"I just need to know," Hatter replied, shaking off his shock.

The man was still staring at him like he'd grown another head. "It's London," he answered finally, then shook his head and continued up the sidewalk.

London. As in... that London? Hatter couldn't stifle his groan as he slumped against the wall again. He was back in Alice's world, but he was on the wrong side of it.

When Alice had been dating Jack, he had claimed to be from London. When Hatter had been given his identification for this world, his birth certificate had said he was born in a place called Bradford, West Yorkshire. Apparently the way they talked made them sound like they were from a place called the United Kingdom. Alice had shown it to him on a map once, and she had encouraged him to learn enough about it to convince people that it was where he was from.

But he had never been there... here... until now.

And now the question was, how was he going to get home? He had no money, none of his identification. Nothing but...

He quickly jammed his hands into his pockets, fishing around until he found what he was looking for. His wallet and his keys had been left behind in his flat when he had disappeared through to Wonderland. But he had discovered his cell phone, still in the pocket of his pants, and as there was no service in Wonderland, he had turned it off, but had kept it with him.

He needed to call Alice, to let her know where he was, and to figure out how to get home.

…

Both the Nine and the Ten of Clubs stood, staring, from either side of the doorway.

Hatter had been following Nine, following him to where the White Knight had disappeared through a door. And Ten had been following Hatter. Until Hatter had simply vanished.

He had wondered what it looked like, when a door became a rabbit hole. When a person passed from Wonderland into the other world. He half expected a flash of light or a puff of smoke. Something to indicate what had occurred.

But there had been none of that. Hatter had simply walked through the doorway and disappeared in an instant, like he had never been there.

Leaving Ten to simply stare at the spot Hatter should have been standing.

…

He was about to hurl the wretched piece of technology to its doom. Every time Hatter dialed Alice's number, a mechanical voice had come on, stating that the number could not be completed and to call his service provider. He found himself cursing the doors once again for the games they were playing, and only realized that he was cursing them out loud when people started to steer clear of him, casting him strange looks.

It was an American girl who had eventually helped him. Rebecca, as she had eventually introduced herself, laughed lightly at him and rescued his cell phone from its near-destruction, when he had told her of his plight. Well, the parts that he could tell without her thinking him completely mad.

"You can't make an international call from your cell phone," she had explained, before pulling him in the direction of a bright red call box. Hatter had stared at the familiar object for a long moment. There had been one just like it, only significantly more aged, across the bridge from his tea shop. Only there hadn't been a phone in that one. Again, he shook it off, and listened carefully as Rebecca instructed him on how to make an international collect call.

He struggled to squelch his disappointment when an all-too-familiar male voice accepted the charges.

"Jack, where's Alice?"

"Hello to you too, Hatter."

"Where's Alice?"

"She's not here."

"What do you mean..."

"She went for a walk."

Hatter could practically hear Jack rolling his eyes, but he breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that Alice hadn't somehow been banished to Wonderland now that he had found his way back to this world.

"Where are you Hatter?"

"London."

"London?" Hatter could hear Jack curse softly. "How did you get there?"

"How do you think?" Irritation was starting to set in, but so was anxiety. "I'm stuck, Jack. I have no money, no ID, and I'm clear across this world from where I ought to be."

Silence met him on the other end of the line.

"Jack?" Still silence, though a bit of muffled noise in the background. "Jack!"

"Look, we'll figure this out," Jack's too-calm voice came back on the line. Then, muffled once again, he heard Jack say, "It's Hatter."

And in an instant, it was Alice's voice that replaced Jack's.

"Hatter!" She practically screamed his name into the phone, causing him to jerk the receiver away from his ear. But her voice had never sounded so welcome.

"Alice!" he breathed, a lump rising in his throat.

"Where are you?"

Hatter released a puff of breath. "London," he answered, once again.

"London? How did you get there?" Then she paused. "Nevermind. I know. The doors."

Hatter released a wry chuckle.

"God, Hatter, I miss you." A pained note came into Alice's voice.

"I miss you too." It came out a bare whisper, but she heard it. For a long moment, they were both silent, listening to the other breathe, and trying to collect themselves.

Finally, Hatter broke the silence. "Alice, I'm stuck here. I don't have any money or any of my ID. I don't know how to get home." A hint of nerves he was trying to hide came through his voice.

"We'll figure it out, Hatter." Alice's voice was reassuringly strong.

There was some muffled talking in the background. Hatter strained to hear it, but couldn't make it out. Then he heard Alice's voice say, "Okay, in a minute." Then she was back, talking to him. "Jack wants to talk to you again. He says he knows someone that can help you."

"Wait, Alice!" Hatter remembered something, all too suddenly, and it made his stomach drop. "Charlie went through a door too. He's somewhere in this world." Though, now Hatter had to wonder if he was in New York or London or somewhere else entirely.

But his fears were quickly assuaged by Alice's next words. "I know. He's here with me."

Hatter released a relieved sigh. "Good."

Then Jack's voice came back on the line, telling him about a Wonderland contact in London, and giving him an address. Hatter had no paper or pen to write it down with, but he repeated it over and over in his head until he was sure that he would not forget it. The contact's name was Dumpty, and Hatter had to wonder if it was that Dumpty, or perhaps a relation. But it didn't matter. If this contact could help him get home, that's all that mattered.

Alice came back on the line, and they talked for a few more minutes. She assured him that they would send his passport and a plane ticket to Dumpty's address, and that within a few days, he should be home safe.

He could hear the tears in her voice when they said goodbye. "I love you, Hatter," she whispered into the phone, just before the call disconnected.

…

Alice sat down, hard, on the couch and buried her face in her hands for a moment, struggling to collect herself. Hatter was back in her world, even if it was the wrong part of it. Even if the doors were to stop working now, at least they were both on the same side.

But so was Jack. And Charlie.

Charlie. If he was stuck here for a while, they were definitely going to have to do something about how he was dressed. He couldn't very well stay in his armor in New York City. Alice determined that she would need to stop at a thrift store when she went out, to purchase a few outfits for him.

Jack was on the phone again, talking to who she assumed was Dumpty. She had nearly snickered at the name, singing the nursery rhyme in her head, but then she had recalled that Humpty Dumpty had appeared in _Alice Through the Looking Glass_ as well, and therefore quite likely had been a real person in Wonderland.

Dumpty agreed, without much persuasion, to assist Hatter, and Jack was off the phone within minutes. Alice rushed off to find Hatter's passport, and then she and Jack headed for the door.

It was only then that Alice noticed that Charlie was still standing, much as he had since his arrival, right by the front door. He was strangely silent, but watching their rushing about with interest.

"Charlie?"

"Hmm?"

"Make yourself at home." Alice waved him further into the apartment. He nodded and took a few steps in the direction of the kitchen, before turning around to face the two, a question in his eyes.

"Where are you going?"

"We'll be back soon, Charlie. We need you to stay here," Alice told him. She could see his face starting to fall, and she knew that, if there was one thing Charlie hated, it was being left behind. "We need someone to guard the apartment," she added finally.

Charlie seemed to perk up at this, and began humming _hey nonny nonnys_ as he headed back toward the kitchen. Alice breathed a sigh of relief, and motioned Jack out the door, pausing just on the threshold to ensure that the door wasn't going to banish her to Wonderland now that Hatter was finally back here.

…

It had taken him nearly an hour to find someone that would trade one of his gold rings for some of the money from this place. He didn't know how much "pounds" were worth, but he doubted that he had gotten anything near what the gold ring was worth. But that didn't matter. He just needed enough to take a cab to the address that Jack had supplied.

It had taken another long while to find a cab that wasn't occupied, but he finally had, and had finally arrived at the address that Jack had given him.

It was a small inn and pub, to Hatter's surprise, and despite the early hour, the pub was half-full of people. A thin, graying older man stood behind the counter, looking half-asleep as he stared out over the pub-goers. He certainly didn't look like a Dumpty, if record held true. But he looked up as Hatter approached the bar, and looked him over with almost a knowing look.

"I'm looking for Dumpty," Hatter stated, keeping his voice low.

The man cocked an eyebrow, and looked a little more interested. "Here on business?"

Hatter lowered his voice even further. "Yes, Jack Chase sent me." He exercised caution, not willing to refer to Jack by his true name or his title as the king until he knew who he was dealing with.

"You must be David."

Hatter jumped at the voice directly behind him, and wheeled about to come face to face with a plump and pleasant looking older woman. His face obviously betrayed his surprise, because the woman chuckled, good-naturedly. "You were expecting a man." It was a statement, not a question.

"You're Dumpty, then?"

The woman nodded. "Though to most I'm Edith." She smiled at him again. "Let's go to the back room, shall we?"

Hatter hesitated at the doorway, glancing past it before continuing forward. Edith noticed, but said nothing. And the back room, were it not for the sound of traffic coming through the small windows, would only have made Hatter believe he had fallen back into Wonderland. Ivy and creeping plants grew up the walls, and a small tree graced the corner of the room, its branches stretching across the ceiling. The floor was dirt, with small tufts of grass sticking up in places.

"We try to make misplaced Wonderlanders feel at home," Edith explained, noting his expression. "And there are a lot more of those then usual these days."

Hatter found out that Edith and her husband, who was not from Wonderland, were currently housing twelve people, displaced by the doors. Several had been stuck for weeks, and the doors back had seemed far more infrequent then the doors out.

Hatter had almost laughed, stating that it had seemed the other way around for him. He explained that the doors had sent him back to Wonderland twice now, and he had been stranded there for nearly a week before the door that had brought him here had finally opened.

"And now I'm on the wrong side of this world," he stated ruefully.

Edith had squeezed his arm, comfortingly. "King Jack and your Alice are working on fixing that. You just need to make sure you don't walk through the wrong door before then."

…

They had made it to the post office just as it was closing. The counter attendant looked none too pleased to see Alice and Jack rush in, but at Alice's vehement insistence, had dutifully filled out the paperwork and taken the payment to have their package rushed out first thing in the morning.

Alice seemed to relax slightly as they started back toward the apartment. She almost looked ready to smile, but Jack knew that was unlikely until Hatter was safely back in her arms. The slight crease of worry was still in her brow – concern that he could end up back in Wonderland instead, or that she might.

"I wish I hadn't broken the looking glass."

Jack's statement surprised Alice and drew her up short.

"I didn't realize it would cause more problems then it would solve," Jack continued. Alice was really looking at him now, seeing the hint of misery in his eyes. He was being vulnerable, not hiding behind his regal mask. And Alice felt a little sorry for him.

"You didn't know this would happen," she stated.

Jack shook his head. "But I should have known that nothing in Wonderland is ever simple."

"Guess not." Alice took a deep breath and continued walking. Jack paused for a moment longer before falling into step with her. He didn't say anything more, but Alice could tell that he was still thinking about it.

They detoured to an army surplus store on the way back to the apartment. Alice was determined to find Charlie at least one outfit to wear. She couldn't imagine the armor being terribly comfortable, even to a man who was used to wearing it. She found some trousers that she eyed as being close to the right size, and a small selection of button-down shirts soon joined it. But it was something in the window that really caught her eye.

…

Alice snuggled down into her bed with a small sigh. A few more nights alone, then Hatter would be back, back in their bed where he belonged. And she couldn't wait.

She could hear Charlie snoring in the other room, and briefly wondered how Jack would sleep. Charlie, while wary of the clothing they had selected, had been quite ecstatic at their other find – a long mesh hammock on a large metal frame. It had taken up a good chunk of the living room, making the small apartment feel even smaller. And Jack had seemed significantly less then pleased at the prospect of sharing his sleeping quarters with another man.

Alice had peeked back into the living room before going to bed, and shook her head at the sight. She couldn't help but wonder how many more unexpected visitors were going to show up on her doorstep.

…

**So, will Alice and Hatter be reunited? Or will the doors come between them again? Stay tuned.**

**Please review!**


	11. Chapter 10: Reunited

**AN: My apologies for the ridiculously long update time... between writers block and a major other writing project to complete, it just took forever to create this chapter. It isn't perfect, but hope it was worth the wait.**

**Enjoy. And please review. I will try to speed up my updates, I promise.**

...

Hatter would have hidden away in his room until it was time to go home, but Edith would have none of that. He had emerged in the morning, and Edith had allowed him to make a phone call to Alice from her sitting room. Afterward, he had thanked her and retreated back to his room, where he had spent most of the day watching the world pass by through the window, and avoiding doors.

By dinnertime, Edith sought him out. "Was starting to think you'd gone back to Wonderland," she stated.

Hatter laughed ruefully. "S'what I'm trying not to do," he had replied. Alice was worried, when she had talked to him, that one or both of them would end up back in Wonderland before he got home, and he'd felt increasingly unsettled after the phone call, and remaining in his room had seemed like the best course of action.

It had taken some convincing, but Edith had managed to coax him into coming down to the pub to meet the other Wonderlanders. "You have no idea how excited they were when they found out who's here," she told him.

Hatter, however, felt a little apprehensive. The Looking Glass had never been widely accessible, other then to those allied to the Queen – White Rabbit agents, a few Cards, and a handful of useful contacts. The Resistance had, on occasion, managed to get some of their people through, but far less frequently. Which meant that most of the displaced Wonderlanders had likely worked for the Queen he had helped depose.

And as such, the warm reception and sudden celebrity caught him completely off guard, despite what Edith had told him. There was a small group of Wonderlanders at a table in the back corner of the pub, chatting and drinking pints of beer. When Edith had introduced him, he had quickly become the center of attention.

Within moments, they had made room for him at the table, someone had purchased him a pint of rather thick looking dark beer, and they were peppering him with questions, mostly surrounding the New Alice of Legend, though it quickly became rather clear that he was considered to be somewhat of a legend himself.

Hatter had warmed quickly, once he had overcome his initial shock and apprehension, and found himself actually enjoying the camaraderie. These people were so much more unguarded and lively then he ever remembered Wonderlanders being, especially Cards.

However, the beer, he decided, was definitely an acquired taste. He wasn't much of a beer drinker at best, and this tasted different and was far stronger then anything he had tried in New York. And it was warm. He had downed a few mouthfuls, fighting not to show his distaste and failing, much to the humor of several of his companions.

But as the night wore on, Hatter found himself becoming increasingly aware of someone else. The man was sitting alone at the next table, close enough to listen and watch, but not participate. He was obviously a Wonderlander and a suit. Unlike Hatter's companions for the evening, who had swapped out their Wonderland garb for regular street clothes, he clung to his Spade-emblazoned jacket like a shield. And throughout the night, he kept shooting dark glances in Hatter's direction, leaving Hatter feeling very unsettled.

But he stayed silent... until one of Hatter's companions, the only woman of the group, called him a hero.

"Easy to be a hero when you get to leave right after," he snarled, glaring directly at Hatter, "leaving the mess for everyone else to clean up while you get your happy ending." He slid his chair sharply back, and Hatter tensed, his right hand forming a defensive fist under the table.

But the Spade did not advance, just stood there glowering. "Do you really think overthrowing the Queen fixed Wonderland?" He watched his words sink in, sobering the mood of the others at the table, before turning his burning gaze on Hatter again. Hatter tried not to flinch as the tirade continued. "Hell, do you even know what Wonderland is like anymore? How badly it's falling apart?"

He turned to leave, but turned back to spit out one last barb. "Tell me, hero. Would you even care about Wonderland now if it wasn't starting to affect your precious world?"

The Spade's words had cast a pall over the evening, and Hatter couldn't quite shake them from his mind, even as he tried to sleep later that night.

It wasn't that he was unaware of what Wonderland was like, now that the Queen and the tea were gone. Jack had visited, initially fairly frequently, and updated Hatter and Alice on what was going on in Wonderland – the unrest, the lack of hope, the extreme poverty. And he had tried to help – assisting Jack in acquiring supplies, and helping him to track down anyone who breached the looking glass.

But he couldn't quite shake a twinge of... guilt. He did have a good life in this world. A life he couldn't have even dreamed about when he was living in Wonderland. He had a nice apartment and hot showers every morning. Food of every description was always readily available. He had been able to stop constantly looking over his shoulder and to truly sleep. And he was amazed at how quickly he had become accustomed to all of that.

…

It was far too early in the morning. Alice squashed her pillow over her face, trying to drown out the clanging of pots and the boisterous _hey nonny nonnys_ coming from the kitchen. It had been her wake-up call for the last three mornings, and it seemed to be getting earlier each time.

She lifted the pillow enough to look at the clock before slamming it back down over her face. 6:12 AM.

"Can't you make breakfast quietly?" she moaned into her pillow. As if in reply, Charlie's singing grew even more boisterous. Grumbling, Alice threw back her covers and threw on her robe before making her way down the hall.

She couldn't help but feel sorry for Jack, not being shielded from the racket by even a door. But when she reached the main room, Jack was nowhere to be seen. Charlie, on the other hand, surrounded by almost every pot and pan they owned, was happily cooking something akin to scrambled eggs in the kitchen.

His face lit up when he saw Alice stumble into the main room. "JustAlice! You're up!" He practically bounded over to her, bearing a steaming cup of something that Alice could only hope was coffee.

"Not much choice," she grumbled under her breath, but Charlie didn't seem to notice as he pushed the mug into her hands and rushed back to the kitchen to stir the eggs.

"Breakfast is almost ready," he called out cheerily. "Shan't be long."

Alice took a sip from the mug, and was grateful to find that, not only was it coffee, but coffee done exactly as she liked it. Charlie had mastered the various kitchen appliances in very short order, and his breakfasts did not disappoint, even if they did occur at an ungodly hour of the morning.

Yawning, Alice perched herself on the arm of the couch, and looked around the small apartment again. "Where's Jack?" she asked finally.

She wasn't sure that Charlie had even heard her. He barely looked up from the stove. "Hmm?"

"Where's Jack?" she repeated. She glanced down the hall, but the bathroom door was ajar, so he wasn't in there.

She wondered if he had gotten tired of Charlie's snoring and gone to a hotel for the night. Or maybe he had just gone somewhere to think. He had become increasingly morose in the past couple of days, and spent more and more time on his own. She knew he was blaming himself for everything that was happening and worrying about how Wonderland was faring in his absense. And missing Charlotte. She understood the last one. And she was so thankful that by tonight Hatter would be back home. Provided he didn't walk through another door.

Charlie gave a cry of delight, and pulled the frying pan off the burner with a flourish, and began dividing the eggs onto two plates. Not three.

Alice frowned slightly before asking a third time. "Charlie, where is Jack?"

Charlie looked up from the plates, a surprised look on his face. "He's gone home of course." He picked up the two plates and set them onto the table, with an overly bright, "Breakfast's ready."

"Wait, what do you mean he's gone home?" Alice stared at Charlie as she approached the table. "You mean, he went back to Wonderland?"

Charlie looked at her in surprise. "He has a kingdom to rule," he stated, matter-of-factly. "He oughtn't to have been dallying about over here in the first place." He lifted a forkful of eggs. "Tuck in."

Alice couldn't help but feel a little relieved, even through her apprehension. "When?" she asked. "And how?"

"Through a door of course." Charlie shoveled a large bite of eggs into his mouth, and chewed for a long moment, as Alice continued to look at him, more questions in her eyes. Swallowing, Charlie gave an exaggerated sigh, before continuing. "He was worried about getting back, so I told him that door there..." he waved his hand in the general direction of the front door, "... would take him back."

Alice was gaping at him now. "How did you know that?" she demanded, with such intensity that Charlie looked startled and almost a little afraid for a moment.

"Well... I'm a knight," he stated.

Alice was starting to get excited now. "So, you can tell when a door is..." She paused for a moment, trying to find the right words. "... when a door is a rabbit-hole?"

…

"Please don't make a scene."

Alice may as well have saved her breath. This was Charlie, after all. Even in the very plain trousers and button-down shirt she had bought him, he still stood out.

And with his very vocal, very jubilant astonishment at every new thing he saw, she knew that the airport was the last place she ought to have been taking him. Her mind flew back to his reaction to the flamingos in Wonderland, and she wondered just how much more she could expect when he saw an actual plane.

But Charlie's apparent ability to predict rabbit-hole doors was invaluable to her, and he had already given her forewarning once. The last thing she wanted to do was end up in Wonderland, now that Hatter was just about back where he belonged.

But even with Charlie there, charging recklessly through doors, without much of a thought, she still found herself pausing at each and every door, as ridiculous and paranoid as it made her look. Charlie was well ahead of her in seconds, loudly proclaiming his awe of everything around him.

They reached the gate that Hatter would come through with plenty of time before his plane even landed. Alice knew that she might regret it, but she took Charlie over to the large windows overlooking the tarmac and let him watch the planes coming in. As expected, he was extremely excited by this, and drew a lot of strange looks from the others in the waiting area, but this time Alice ignored them. She remembered when she was little, her mother taking her to the airport to wait for her father's plane. She had been so excited, watching the planes take off and land, all the while looking for the one that carried her dad.

It was nearly an hour later that she saw him. He was paused, just before a set of double sliding-glass doors leading out into the waiting area. He looked exhausted and just a bit nervous, but when he saw Alice and Charlie, his face broke into a wide grin, and he rushed through the final barriers, ducked under the railing and gathered Alice into a tight embrace, kissing every exposed inch of skin he could find.

Alice drew back slightly before crushing her lips to his, only stopping once her breath ran out and Charlie's very vocal protests and a few wolf-whistles from others in the crowd broke through her happy haze.

Charlie looked absolutely scandalized, and didn't seem to know whether to hug Hatter or cuff him for his "inappropriate" behavior.

Alice linked her fingers with Hatter's as they made their way back through the airport toward the car park. Neither said much, and barely listened to Charlie's incessant chatter. Both were just relieved to be back together, and longing to get back to the apartment for some alone time.

"The sooner we get home the better," Hatter stated tiredly, as they stepped through the main door...

…


	12. Chapter 11: Longest Day

All Hatter wanted was home. Home, a hot cup of tea, his Alice and his bed. And he didn't much care in what order.

Instead, he felt the ground drop away, very suddenly, beneath his feet, and he and Alice were free-falling from a ledge high in Wonderland City. Falling, until the impossibly strong arms of the White Knight caught them and dragged them back to safety.

"Oh for cryin' out loud," he gasped pitifully as he collapsed back onto the ledge, clinging to Charlie with one hand and to an equally-shaken Alice with the other, and willing his heart to stop racing painfully in his chest.

"You need to be more careful, Harbinger," Charlie scolded, shaking his arm free and rising to his feet. "You can't just go... traipsing off without looking where you're going!"

"You... caught us?" Hatter stared in blank amazement at the elderly man, now standing behind him, then over at Alice who was huddled, still trembling, against his chest. "How?"

Charlie sniffed slightly and drew himself up even taller. "I was paying attention. Besides... I'm a knight!"

Hatter looked down over the ledge again and cursed. Wonderland City was the last place he wanted to be right now, and to make matters worse, the door had opened high in the city – and a very long walk away from anywhere Hatter would feel safe taking Alice.

Alice. He looked down at his arms when he felt her shift. She was pulling herself back together, and rising shakily to her feet. He reluctantly let go of her once she was a good step away from the edge, and worked at getting his own legs to support his weight again.

Alice could read the struggle and dismay in Hatter's face, and she knew he was swiftly reaching the end of his endurance. She was feeling a little dismayed herself. She had been looking forward to the night with Hatter back in her bed where he belonged. She felt a rush of sympathy for the man, who was still sitting, staring over the ledge at the city below and looking utterly exhausted. With the time-zone difference, she couldn't help but wonder just how long of a day he'd already had.

The door. She cautiously extricated herself from Hatter's protective hold, and traded that security for a vice-grip hold on Charlie's arm. "Please," she whispered to any force that might hear or help her, as she gripped the doorknob. It turned easily enough in her hands, but the door simply refused to open. She threw her shoulder into it, but it still didn't budge.

"Dammit!" The curse echoed off the surrounding buildings, sounding terribly loud and out of place.

Charlie looked startled and slightly appalled at her language, but that only drew Alice's ire.

She turned on Charlie in a second. "Why didn't you warn us about the door?" she demanded, glaring stormily at the now flustered-looking older man.

Hatter's attention turned, instantly, from the path he was plotting in his head. When all Charlie did was hum and haw for a moment or two, he turned to Alice with a questioning look.

"He can tell when doors are going to... you know..." Alice made a sweeping gesture with her hand in explanation.

Hatter shook his head in disbelief, and stared at the older man. "Why didn't you tell us, Charlie?"

"It's tricky," Charlie protested, looking a little hurt, and shifting uncomfortably under the intense gazes of both of his companions. "Not an exact... er... science, if you will."

Hatter took a deep breath and released it slowly. "Sorry Charlie," he managed finally. "It's not your fault. It's just... been a long day."

...

A long day that just kept getting longer.

They'd been walking for nearly an hour now, picking their way along ledges and bridges in relative silence.

Charlie had chattered incessantly about everything and anything at first, until he had nearly driven both Alice and Hatter mad, but that was much better then the all-too-quiet Charlie who accompanied them now. Part way through their walk, Charlie had realized that he was still dressed in the clothes that Alice had given him... and that his beloved armor had been left behind in the other world. He had been inconsolable, bemoaning its loss, and although Alice did her best to convince him that they would reunite him with his armor as soon as possible, it was like the wind had been taken, very suddenly, out of his sails. Now he merely followed his two companions, looking rather morose and occasionally muttering softly to himself.

Alice was struggling against her own growing annoyance. She knew Hatter was tired, exhausted. She could see it in every facet of his being, but he refused to stop. When she had suggested that they just find an abandoned apartment for the night (which she was certain there were many of), and continue their trek in the morning, Hatter had adamantly shaken his head. "Not safe," he had stated, and Alice had bristled, knowing full well that if she hadn't been along, he wouldn't have thought twice about it, and would likely be sound asleep in one of the said holes in the wall. When she tried to remind him that she was a black belt and a far better fighter then he ever was, Hatter had just fixed her with a pained expression and rolled his eyes.

As for Hatter, he was sinking further and further into a very dark mood. He was thoroughly sick of being yanked between his worlds, especially when it had been the thought of home that had buoyed him through the last three days, and one rather horrid plane ride. If he was still in the other world, they'd likely almost be home. Instead of picking their way miserably through the slowly darkening streets of Wonderland. He knew that tomorrow, he would determinedly redouble his efforts to find out how to fix the door problem, but right now, it was all he could do to resist the urge to hit something. Hard. That, or curl up in a ball and cry like a child.

Then it started to rain.

"Bloody fantastic," he muttered, starting to shiver.

...

The droning sound had reached his ears long before Hatter could see the flying machine. His initial attempts to spot the scarab were impeded by the growing dark, the looming buildings, and the pouring rain. And after the second time he had slipped on the mud-slicked paths, he decided that keeping his footing was more important, and focused instead on the ledge in front of him. Scarabs were large – he'd be able to spot it easily enough if it got close.

But it wasn't until they rounded the corner, and his teashop came into view that he finally saw it. The scarab was hovering in the air, its lights sweeping over the pathways and bridges below. When the light passed the ledge, quite close to them, Hatter felt Alice press up against him and crouch down.

When Hatter shot her a questioning look over his shoulder, she looked pointedly down at her arm. "The light," she hissed softly. "It'll turn me green again."

Hatter looked back up at the scarab, then shook his head. "Different lights," he assured her. He felt her relax slightly, but she remained pressed up against him. And now, he realized, Charlie was pressed against them too, and peering over Hatter's shoulder toward the teashop.

"Suits," Charlie whispered, pointing.

The sight that met Hatter's eyes was a little too reminiscent of the last time he had stood there, in the shadow of the red call box, gazing across the bridge, and it triggered a deep-set trepidation, even though reason told him he had little to fear of the suits now.

The building was more rundown this time, and thankfully there was not a ceramic rabbit head to be seen, but there were several suits standing on the porch of the teashop, and one was questioning a very nervous looking Dormie, who was wringing his hands and twitching. Several other suits were fanning outwards, looking over the ledges and down paths, obviously searching for someone.

When another figure appeared through the doorway, joining the others on the porch, Hatter released the breath he didn't realize he was holding. A presence that, at one time, would have had Hatter fearing for his life was now the most welcome visage Hatter could wish to see. Even in the dark and the rain, even though his usual suits had been swapped out for a Club-emblazoned rain slicker, the man was unmistakeable.

Cruz.

...

**AN: Sorry, kind of a filler chapter, but more action-y, interesting stuff is coming...**

**Again, I owe apologies for how long it has taken me to update. I really lost my inspiration on a lot of my stories, but I am still working on them.**

**Cheers and thanks for reading.**


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